ANC loots electricity for its birthday celebrations – mayor of Kgatelopele must pay up
| by Grantham Steenkamp, MPL – DA Northern Cape Spokesperson of COGHSTA |
| Error! Filename not specified. |
| Date: 04 June 2020 |
| Release: Immediate |
| Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites in English & Afrikaans from Grantham Steenkamp, MP. The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape has requested the Office of the Auditor General to conduct a forensic investigation into the old Schmidtsdrift land claim. This comes after a group of indigenous claimants have yet to fully receive their part of the deal, twenty years after the initial settlement.In this regard, the DA is particularly concerned that conditions of the old claim have been allowed to slide, to the detriment of the people of the Fonteintjie Community Development Trust.The Schmidtsdrift land Claim was finalized on 8th April 2000 with the Batlapin Tswana Community combined with the Fonteintjie Community Development Trust, both representing the Schmidtsdrift CPA. On the 15th September 2000, a second Settlement Agreement was concluded. This settlement afforded the Fonteintjie Community Development Trust and the Batlapin community, to share the land in two equal halves. To date, however, this agreement was never implemented and the Fonteintjie Community has been willfully denied rightful ownership to their land. Given that the affected community has also since been pushed out of the CPA, the community also draws no benefits from ongoing operations on the land and has, in effect, been left high and dry. The United Griqua community has meanwhile also been denied their rightful allocation as per agreement with government, in spite of R14 million also having been paid by the Department of Agriculture to accommodate for their land claim.The DA is concerned that the Fonteintjie community and the United Griqua community are both losing out on their share of the bargain.Based on this, we decided to approach the Office of the Auditor General to request a forensic investigation into the Schmidtsdrift Land Claim. While the AG’s Office has yet to indicate whether or not they will go ahead with such an investigation, they have requested further documentation, which I personally delivered to their offices today (see pic here).The DA sincerely hopes that the AG’s office will pursue the matter.It is time that we get behind our marginalized communities, including the indigenous people of South Africa, who are losing out on what is rightfully theirs due to an uncaring government that is unable to implement decisions of the courts. Their futures must be determined by the value of fairness, that will ultimately underpin the preservation of diversity. |
| Media Enquiries |
| Grantham Steenkamp, MPLDA Northern Cape Spokesperson of COGHSTA071 797 6292 Shelley De WittResearcher082 847 1387 |
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