Mogono, Chaneng, Tsitsing, Photsaneng/Bleskop Opposing Affidavit

Find the Opposing affidavit of Mogono, Chaneng, Tsitsing, Photsaneng/Bleskop Communities' in the list below the home page. Your attention is drawn from page 52. or directly here https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B72gJZ75Jz7tZmI1ODE4ZWQtNzgxZC00NWM2LWE5MjMtYjlmODM3ZTViYmY5&hl=en_US

Bafokeng Communities' files their Opposing Papers

Find in the page 'Bafokeng Communities' Opposing/Answering Papers' below the 'Home' tab various parties' filed opposing papers to the Bafokeng's Application in case no. 999/08, Mafikeng High Court. 

Greetings to the “Durkje we love and miss you” family

It is seven days since Durkje bid us all farewell. At last we have bid Durkje farewell.

It was one of the most beautiful farewells one could ever imagine. So many contributed, every contribution was precious.

This was a memorial to the life, the achievements of Durkje but also an expression of overwhelming love for Durkje. Our thanks and gratitude must go to you Chris Langeveld.  You channeled our love for Durkje into a celebration of a life spent selflessly for those that needed it most, the dispossed and the wronged.

Durkje is a diamond of many facets (I still cannot get myself to use the past tense). Sister to Imme and Janneke, Mother to Henry and Charles, Grandmother to Meagan and Grace, Mother in law to Rina and Naomi, care giver and champion to untold numbers of people. Every person at the service departed with a shared experience of this gift to the country she loved and made her own.

The time line followed was of her service as an attorney.  The Legal Recourses Centre (LRC) office in Pretoria is where the Law of Land became her specialty. None were surprised at her appointment as a Land Claims Commissioner. Many more were saddened when it became clear that the three year contract was not to be renewed. Testimonials there were aplenty from communities she had served in Limpopo and Mpumalanga and those of her Pretoria LRC days in Northern Province and North West.

With the staff she so carefully recruited, a foundation was laid and lines of action were thrashed out that simply did not exist. The research they did and the results they achieved in but three years clearly demonstrated that they were on the right track, that progress in rural land reform was possible but, by its very nature, will be slow and difficult. Undaunted she returned to the LRC, this time in Johannesburg, to continue with her passion, Land Reform, as an attorney for communities that needed their claims taken forward. With no limitation on the communities she may assist, she answered calls from close to home to the far reaches of Northern Cape, North West Province, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Cases that she had worked on before she was Commissioner came back to her still unresolved.  Three days before admitted to ICU with double pneumonia, she was in Piet Retief taking forward claims she had nurtured  as Attorney of Gilfillan du Plessis, after she retired from LRC. Her colleagues kept alive the hopes of many communities whose claims were still in progress. Standing there in the ICU cubical she had occupied for more than eight weeks, with her now cold body, I grieved for these precious colleagues and the communities whose hopes they had kept alive believing, as did we all, that it was but a question of time. For us as family it is a grievous loss, but we will recover. For they that desperately hoped for her recovery, that she will continue the work that is interrupted, I found her passing particularly cruel.

But there were others at the memorial service that remembered another Durkje, the political activist, the municipal candidate, with her picture plastered across the ward she contested. (It was no surprise she did not win. The surprise came from a person of “the other side”. His words to me were “you wife did remarkably well”). They recognized, if not the face then the name. They so wanted Durkje to succeed. For our sons it was “that is our mommy”. They knew of this women that welcomed to our home, for a get together, the Delmas trialists (largest of the so called Delmas trials transferred to Pretoria) out on bail. When I and friends visited Pretoria Central Prison, with food parcels, the three denied bail, Durkje befriended their families, keeping open house for those that came from far.

I recall a young boy, totally absorbed singing to himself, placing one after the other, the toy cars, trucks, trains, whatever he found in the cupboards of our sons, in a line that snaked down the passage and into the lounge. Now a not so young man I wonder if he remembers those moments of tranquility away from home, with father awaiting trial in Pretoria Central Prison.

Others at the service recall our visits to the townships to observe and report on acts of violence against individual activists and communities, to MP’s of the Opposition in the White Parliament. These MP’s were the protective umbrella we used to bluster our way through tight and potentially dangerous confrontations with the system. Still others recall Durkje’s work in the Pretoria Black Sash, and the relationships we developed with representatives of foreign Governments. A dear friend, and Chair of Black Sash, was detained at the beginning of one of the states of emergency of the 1980’s. A visiting foreign minister, of a leading Western Power, was asked by a small delegation, at a meeting in the embassy, to intervene on her behalf (he did just that, to be chocked off for interfering in the affairs of RSA). Imagine the amazement as he emerged into the full glare of TV cameras, followed by the delegation with Durkje and then I in tow!

When was Durkje so heavily involved politics and unrest monitoring? When as housewife and mother she was studying law by correspondence. Henry was once asked “what work does your mother do”. The innocent young boy retorted “my mother doesn’t work”.

Representatives of another land claim, that has been with Durkje for some time, were present at the Memorial service but, for lack of time, did not come forward to speak. I quote from a letter written by Durkje to the community representative. “Through research I am sure I have found the legal answer to enforce transfer of ……. (your communities) rights.”  -Chris Gilfillan

THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH, NEVER ITS MINERALS

Truly a people that do not learn from their errors are surely doomed to repeat the same.  The wisdom of the past still rings true to this day. Though decried and not technically savvy or “civilized” as some of our mis-educated intellectuals today, our forebears were able to conceptualize immortality and eternity in the face of changing “truths”.

Motsogapele o rile: Bopelonomi bo bolaile Mmamasilanoka. Phokoje e sola bowa mokgwa ga e o latlhe. What does these supposedly obsolete proverbs in the age of cretinism have to do with anything?

1. Our kindness has metamorphosized into love for our deceivers and hatred for self and kind.  2. The deceiver’s mission has not changed and his skillfully masqueraded modus operandi continues.

It was the deceiver’s intention to rob you of your being and possessions from the moment of first contact to this day. The deceiver led many to believe that a state of defeat is blissful and rewarding, whilst he defrauded you of your wealth.  Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth declares the sacred writ. One who has knowledge of self will quickly notice that this saying is against the natural law of survival and self preservation. Meekness denotes one who is weak, docile, compliant, spiritless, defeated etc. This is psychological weapon of war designed for perpetual self defeat.

Many of our ‘indigenous’ people inhabit lands which are rich and replete with mineral resources that are the envy of the imperialists. Why are people therefore conditioned to a state of perpetual need and want in the midst of abundant wealth? Policies and laws governing the raping and looting of our indigenous lands are not in any way legislated for the benefit of the rightful owners but are instead extremely skewed to benefit the looters.  Inheritance has indeed become the very earth upon which one walks with no access to the true wealth of mineral resources underneath.

There are some who in the defense of the Cretins (which themselves have become) and their policies of dispossession will forsake their own. Meek and defrauded of the mineral resources of the land through a promise of inheriting the earth, what is the worth of such inheritance? Squalor and poverty.

Bodiba ba go ja ngwana wa Mmago, ere o feta ka bone o bo sikologe. Nature’s law has no respect for those who strive not to preserve self and kind. The meek indeed shall inherit the earth but never its minerals. The meek  are defeatists unworthy of any real reward. -BB

A brief on the ‘Public Policy Dialogue on Mining, Communities, and Workers’ Conference funded by the Foundation for Human Rights

 The Bafokeng Land Buyers Association (BLBA) made a presentation on the struggles waged by communities forming the Bafokeng ‘tribe’ at the conference funded by the Foundation for Human Rights, held in Johannesburg on the 01-02 February 2011.  -reflects Thusi Rapoo.

The Conference was attended by community-based organisations from around the country engaged in vicious battles against mining companies operating in their areas. Academic papers were presented by experts on acid mine drainage that destroys ecosystems and water quality particularly in areas around gold mining towns; the cluttered State heritage resource management regime which condones the bombing and excavation of graves by the mining companies; and the State’s land restitution and reform process which has failed to redress the land question. The presenters painted a picture of State engineered maladministration, meant to confuse and deprive desperate poor rural communities of access to Government support around issues related to their land. Conflicting and overlapping Government mandates create a state of confusion which the mines can exploit and use to their advantage. For instance, when Anglo Platinum blew the graves of Sekuruwe community in Limpopo their defence was that once they have complied with mining laws overseen by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), they need not account to the National Heritage Resource Council who have jurisdiction on the protection of graves. The uninformed poor rural communities would be left to guess as to which Government department to approach for intervention.

Local Municipalities, who bear the brunt of bad mining practices, cannot hold the mines to account as they are often told that mining is a National competency, meaning therefore that the mines are only answerable to the national DME, and not the Municipalities.

In 1992, the World Bank released a policy framework to guide the new South African government on land and minerals. It has become clear that all the administrative confusion created around issues related to land ownership and control is deliberate, promoted and supported to empower multinational companies in their exploitation of resources (minerals and environment) and is done to the detriment and disempowerment of the affected land owners. At worst, such control of strategic resources (land and minerals) by a few elite at National level can be used by the West, through their agents (the World Bank, IMF and their imperialist multinational mining and agricultural companies) to ferment ethnic  clashes within the ruling party and amongst communities.

LERUO MOLOTLEGI AND HENNIE KEMP ACCUSED OF STRIPPING MAKGOTLA OF THEIR POWERS AND CONTROL OVER LAND

 A number of chiefs and headmen of communities forming the Bafokeng ‘tribe’ are challenging chief Leruo Molotlegi’s quest for the control of communities’ land.

In 2008, the Royal Bafokeng Administration (RBA), under chief Leruo Molotlegi’s command, sought to close shops owned by community members in Luka and Chaneng villages. Some of the shops were hired out to some Chinese nationals. Chief Rammereki Mekgwe of Baphiring in Luka village and other headmen lodged a Court interdict in the Mafikeng High Court to stop the Bafokeng chief from  closing their shops. They claim in their affidavits that it is traditionally the community council (kgotla), the land owners, who allocates land to community members for residence or business purposes. It is only then, after such allocation, that the beneficiary will then approach the RBA, with a letter of authorisation from the kgotla, for RBA to install services such as fencing, water, roads and electricity. ‘That has been the traditional practice’, they claim. ‘RBA’s role is to provide those administrative services and utilities’.

‘RBA wants to control our land by issuing residential and business stands, we will be surprised one day to see a number of people coming in our villages claiming that they have been given stands at RBA by Hennie Kemp’, Chief Rammereki Mekgwe warned.

Interestingly, the matter is on a separate court roll from the other contested case with similar facts, where the Royal Bafokeng Nation are claiming ownership of some 61 farms.

The hearing was on the 17^th March 2011 postponed to May 2011.

AGAINST POPULAR SUPPORT, CHIEF LERUO MOLOTLEGI OPENS UP LEBONE II HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE FEW RICH

Not too long ago, the Royal Bafokeng tribal authority boasted an opening of a six star hotel to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup English soccer team. The R300m hotel built in a mine polluted area and for the wealthy few, stands unsurprisingly empty, costing the Bafokeng heavily on maintenance fees.

Bent on the development of a Bafokeng class society based on misinformation and material possession, chief Leruo Molotlegi of the Bafokeng ‘tribe’ opened new school buildings for the elite Bafokeng’s Lebone II High School. The extravagant opening ceremony, held on the 17^th March 2011 was attended by celebrities, wannabies and the’ who is who’ in South Africa.

The school, originally located opposite the chief’s homestead, Legato, was established by chief Leruo Molotlogi’s predecessor, Mollwane Lebone Molotlegi back in 1997.

The expensive school fees of R3500 – R4000 per month, and the arbitrary, strict admission and screening criteria has created a perception within the poor Bafokeng communities that the school is built exclusively for the affluent families within the Bafokeng. It is further believed that the school is for those who are close to and pays more political allegiance to the royal family.

Some believe that the school is used by the Royal Bafokeng Administration’s research  department, led by Professor Sue Cook and Adolph Zietsman, to further a clandestine indoctrination programe that seeks to distort information about the history of the Bafokeng. The grand-plan is to create a deceitful picture of a progressive, successful African ‘tribe’; to hide the platinum theft taking place in the area; and to create a Bafokeng society and a cadre of young troopers who are oblivious to the current hardships experienced by the broader Bafokeng communities at the whim of the mining companies (Impala Platinum mines, Anglo Platinum, Xstrata, Wesizwe Platinum, Royal Bafokeng Platinum) operating in the area. The children at the school are therefore raised, it is argued, to be praise singers to the chief, and taught not to question the human rights abuses and socio-economic injustices caused by the ruthless mining companies and their puppet tribal authority.

The Chaneng activists’ case postponed

The unfortunate case of the Chaneng activists who were wrongly arrested on account of formenting public violence has been postponed four times already due to the state’s inability to provide evidence against the activists.

The case was first heard on 10^th November 2010 and got postponed to the 14^th January 2011 on account that the activists did not have legal representation. It was then postponed to the 14^th February 2011 on account that the state did not have evidence. Again on the 14^th February it got postponed to the 25^th February 2011, and then 07^th March 2011. From the 07^th March 2011 it was again postponed to the 26^th May 2011 for trial. The delay is as a result of the States’ inability to bring evidence before the court.

The arrests happened after the Chaneng community’s march demonstration against against repressive practices by the State, the Bafokeng tribal chief, the judiciary, the Municipality and the mines (Anglo Platinum, Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Xstrata and Impala) operating in their area. The catalyst to the march was the the brutal demolition of tuckshops in their village ordered by the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s chief. The community is itself part of the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN). The community is against the Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s new Styldrift Mine Project which the community says is not only unlawful but will also bring hardships to the community. The community claim that the project has not provided jobs; has taken agricultural land; will bring foreign mine labour into the community that will disturb their peace and alter their cultural norms; will erect rock and slime dumps next to the community; and that the community will be without residential land in the next ten or so years.

Postponement on the filing of answering papers in the Mafikeng High Court

The communities challenging the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s high court application to have a number of farms transferred and registered in the latter’s name have again been granted a month’s extension until the end of March 2011 to file their answering papers.

DONATE OR REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE LAND CLAIMS

The Association has finally opened up a bank account. Anyone who is interested in making a donation and or a contribution, of whatever nature, size or quantity, is much welcome to make a deposit into the following bank account:

Bank Name                         : ABSA

Account Name                  : Bafokeng Land Buyers’ Association Club

Product/Account Type      : Absa Club Account

Account Number             : 9253919619

Domicile Branch                : Rusten Plaza

Domicile Branch Code    : 6590

Bank Clearing Code         : 632005

The Association wishes to encourage members of the land claiming communities to register their commitment and support to their land claims with their respective Coordinators who will give them registration slips. Registration fee is R100.00.

More information on the top left corner below the Home tab.

Leruo Molotlegi and Lucas Mangope, strange partners?!

‘Batho bame’ Lucas Mangope, the former Bophuthatswana bantustan leader, employed the security services of the Potchefstroom/Ventersdorp based rightwing organisation, AWB, during the homeland’s 1994 coup d’ etat .

In the late 80’s the Bafokeng fought bitterly against ‘Leah emelela ba go bone go re o  montle jang’ Mangope who sought to expropriate their mineral wealth. ‘Bophuthatswana will be independent for the next 100yrs’ Mangope harassed and incarcerated the ‘royal’ family, and had the Bafokeng chief Lebone Molotlegi fleeing to Botswana for his safety.

It is the same Lucas ‘thosa ko thoseng’ Mangope who was recently (October 2010) honoured by the North West University Council for his ‘contribution to the development of academia’. The Council is under the leadership of the late chief Lebone Molotlegi’s successor, Leruo Molotlegi, who is the University’s Chancellor.

Susan and Zietsman are rumoured to have been employing the brutal ex- Bophuthatswana soldiers and policemen in their Bafokeng security company.

When senior members and leadership of the Bafokeng communities’ wants to consult with the chief, they first have to pass through Zietsman. Zietsman could therefore, through security checks, deny or allow important information intended for the chief. When denied, the chief never gets to know about it. In this way the chief is blindfolded and Zietsman a de-facto chief. 

The question that begs is whether the chief is aware of the puzzle and therefore aspirant of ‘ke motoroko, ke monate ka fa teng, mme o seka wa ntlampurela’ Magope. The signs are that the chief, conscious or not, is creating another bantustan.

Balanced media reporting on the land claim case against the Bafokeng

The Mafikeng High Court contest over who really bought the 'Bafokeng tribal land' continue to receive balanced media coverage. The Bafokeng Land Buyers Association has noticed with dismay the propagandist, one hour documentary by the Royal Bafokeng Nation that was aired on SABC in late September 2010. In light of the pending High Court case, the SABC should have at least checked the authenticity of the claims made in the documentary before going on air with them. See the Sunday Independent report on the following link: 'A historian who has extensively studied the Bafokeng area says there is substantial evidence to support the claim that smaller groups bought the land which was registered under the Bafokeng tribe during British Colonial rule'. You have to be a subscriber to the newspaper to access the article. Otherwise one could simply buy the paper from a nearby shop.

More demolitions and hardships for Chaneng and Robega villagers at the whim of the Bafokeng chief!

In the past week ending 10th October 2010, the communities of Chaneng and Robega, two adjacent rural villages that forms the Bafokeng 'tribe' and a stone-throw away from Sun City, chased away the Bafokeng Security company led by the  former apartheid operative Adolph Zietsman out of the village. The notorious Red Ants (a company or group of people wearing red overalls, specifically hired for demolishing houses and evicting the poor) brought in by the repressive Bafokeng Tribal Authority also faced the wrath of the angry, poor villagers. The Red Ants, who were camped next to the village, were warned to vacate their camp or be forced out. They duly obliged and vacated the camp. The community barricated the roads and stopped work at the local Anglo Platinum Styldrift Mine Project.

At a community meeting to adress the illegal evictions and demolitions of their houses by the repressive Bafokeng Tribal Authority, the police shot at community members and  arrested eight community members. The arrested were handpicked from their houses long after the gathering had dispersed. The eight were released from the Phokeng Police station at a collective R1500 bail. They are scheduled to appear in Court on the 10th November 2010 apparently on charges of public violence.

The community has again been denied, for the third time, their right to protest under similar unlawful reasons advanced to the adjacent Luka Community, that they should first get permission to protest from the very same people they are protesting against! It is believed that Adolph Zietsman, head of security of the Bafokeng Tribal Authority, has wide, well sponsored anarchist influence on the local police stations, the Municipal police, and on the chief himself!

A number of Bafokeng communites, including Chaneng and Robega have lodged claims for title to their platinum rich lands at the Mafikeng High Court. A number of them insists on cessation from the repressive Bafokeng Tribal bantustan. Follow this link for more reporting: uproar-over-demolishing-of-houses

Unlawful prohibition of the march against Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi of the Bafokeng 'tribe'

The Rustenburg Local Municipality refused permission for the protest march against the Bafokeng chief this coming Saturday 02 October 2010, saying that the Luka Community must first get permission from the very same people they are marching against! The march organised by the Bafokeng Anti-repression Campaign will nevertheless continue...Phistus Mekgwe and Violet Makobe asserted.
The Conveners say they will contest the prohibition in Court, and will expose the level of influence the Bafokeng enjoys on structures of goverment in the area, including the local Bafokeng Magistrates Court!They say they did whatever was possible to satisfy the illegal demands by the Municipality, and complied with all legal requirements for the notification of the march.They say this is the worst kind of repression, to suppress peoples' Constitutional rights to freedom of association and protest. A number of such applications have been refused in the area thus far on unreasonable and unjustifiable grounds. The communities are not able to exert and protect their rights.... and the challenge has always been that they cannot find or afford legal representatives who are not linked to Bafokeng.

Protest March Against the Bafokeng Chief Leruo Molotlegi

The Community of Luka Village, will embark on another protest march on the 02nd October 2010 in what has been termed the 'Bafokeng Anti-repression Campaign'. The March will start at Mogono circle, Luka Clinic and Thethe High School at 12pm. Bafokeng Land Buyers Association has been invited to support the campaign as it is believed to be 'tactical work' on the ongoing land claims in Mafikeng High Court. Follow the following links on the 'repression': Tuckshop owners in Luka Village, Bafokeng, fights back!; Demolition of tuckshops and eviction of backyard dwellers