September 17, 2004

By Kenneth Chikanga

St Lucia - The Greater St Lucia Wetlands Authority had signed a multimillion-rand land claim settlement with the Mbuyazi people of KwaZulu-Natal, by which they would acquire title deeds for their ancestral land, it said this week.

The authority's chief executive, Andrew Zaloumis, told Business Report that the claim, on a northern KwaZulu-Natal shoreline world heritage site, had been settled in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act.

"In terms of the agreement, up to 560 families who were squatters on land of their birth would acquire a chunk of protected area land in the park but would not be able to physically resettle on it," said Zaloumis "Through this restitution we restore some dignity to our scarred history"

But the unique settlement would provide for a balance of interests for the land claimants in context of the government's restitution objectives for managing a money spinning ecotourism conservation area, optimising regional economic development and genuine black economic empowerment.

Zaloumis said the people of Mbuyazi had lost their land with the brutal annexation of Zululand to the British Crown in 1897.

For decades, the tight-knit community had squatted on their ancestral land, but with no rights to their destiny.

In 1974, tribesmen who had not found jobs on the plantations were evicted by apartheid police and driven to a tribal settlement on the border of St Lucia.

"It was a dark era in the history of black people then," said Bhangazi Trust chairman Enock Mfeka "For us the knock-on effect of guaranteed jobs is empowerment"

"We were whipped off our rightful land to make way for commercial forests.

"Suddenly, white people came to our doorsteps and said we had to move to make way for animals in the game reserve and some other commercial interests."

After democratic elections in 1994, the Mbuyazi people put in a land claim where they sought redress for land dispossession.

This would be done through either restoration (resettlement) or alternative land and financial compensation.

An initial agreement was reached in 1999 and the 556 families were awarded R30 000 per family. The group immediately formed the Bhangazi Trust to disperse the funds.

Maputaland, which forms part of an area incorporated as the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, is one of the poorest areas in South Africa, though it supports extensive swathes of coastline and beaches - a core natural resort with massive tourism potential.

With more than 220km of untouched shoreline up to the border with Mozambique, the fragile ecosystem has been inhabited since the Iron Age.

Nineteenth-century explorers and hunters found teeming herds of game in the rough Zululand jungles, but the apartheid government paid scant attention to tribes, people or nature as sugar and timber plantations were established and natural resources plundered.

But since 1994, the state has sought to balance land restitution claims with environmental debate, forestry and the demilitarisation of the park.

Army bases were removed and missile testing facilities dismantled in an effort to create a new tourism-based economy.

In its recommendation to the government for the settlement, Zaloumis said the authority had recognised that the claimants had the potential to add value to the commercial viability of the park by simply turning their sad history of forced eviction into a restitution success story.

Mfeka said the Bhangazi Trust had now entered a new phase in the historical relationship with the park, through which a sacred burial site would be turned into a cultural museum, African arts and craft village, complete with a R29 million wilderness lodge for tourists.

The concession would run for an initial 15 years, with a 75-year renewal clause by which the Mbuyazi people would gain unrestricted access to their sacred sites and reconnect with their spiritual beliefs - while benefiting from the knock-on effect of guaranteed jobs and joint ownership with the park authority.

"For us that is empowerment," Mfeka said.

"Although some of our people want to physically resettle on the land, we believe that through this restitution we restore some dignity to our scarred history.

"We might not forget, but we have secured our future for as long as the park exists."

The wetlands were declared a protected area in 2000 under the World Heritage Act, and like elsewhere in South Africa where skewed land ownership bears testimony to inequality, the government has been battling for a sustainable solution.

The authority admits that the foundations of the park rest on injustice, and generations today remember the forced removals as the cause of their poverty and hardship.

In terms of the settlement worked out by the authority and the state, the Restitution of Land Rights Act had to be applied in a natural resort area that was otherwise protected by the National Parks Act and the World Heritage Act.

Part of the discourse required that land within a protected area could be owned by claimants without physical occupation, but with arrangements for compensation and benefits.

Effective conservation could be obtained through partnership between the owner (the Mbuyazi people, through the Bhangazi Trust) and manager (the authority, on behalf of the state).

"At that point transfer of title was feasible with registered notarial deed restrictions, and we had a business sense in place.

"Lease agreements for protected areas would allow for undisturbed management of the returned area within a context of holistic management and financial sustainability," Mfeka said.

Benefits for the community would include a partial payout in lieu of opportunity costs, which included a percentage of the annual gross turnover from commercial activities.

"As the wetlands authority, we had to deal with three areas - management of the wildlife and ecological systems, nature-based tourism businesses and improvement of the social conditions of people living in the area."

The cultural site is situated on the southeast margin of Lake Bhangazi, a freshwater lake inland of Cape Vidal.

The site of about 5ha is of significance to the communities, whose ancestors had lived there before their removal, and will be developed in commemoration of its former inhabitants and their cultural traditions into being a source of income.

These include right of access to the lake's eastern shores without charge, burial sites, certain natural resources, as well as job opportunities, naming rights and the payment of a levy derived from gate fees for a period of 75 years to the trust - to be used for the education and benefit of the community as a whole.

A 4.6ha heritage site would be established with provision made for a museum/ cultural monument and craft shop.

The authority is assisting the trust in developing a concept for the cultural heritage site that will represent the story of the Bhangazi people, with particular emphasis on their relationship to the land and natural resources.

The Bhangazi claimants had emphasised the need for the site to host an educational function.

The commercial site is clustered with other tourism development sites around Cape Vidal, while the traditional site is located near the grave of Lokutwayo, the leader of the Bhangazi people who died prior to the forced removals.

Training and skills development in tourism would form an important component of the support provided by the authority to the claimants, while the cultural heritage levy on tourists would help with financial sustainability.

The trust would also partner the development of three other sites, meaning that the people of Bhangazi will hold equity in these tourism developments, benefit from job opportunities and provide outsourced services.