​​The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights officially closed the N'wamankena community land claim file.  The official closure which also resulted in the dissolvent of a land committee that was established to facilitate processing of the claim came into effect after the Commission paid out millions of rand as part of the full and final settlement of the community land claim.

 Claimants were in high spirits as they danced and ululated while receiving their vouchers from the Office of the Limpopo Regional Land Claims Commissioner.

 The total amount approved by Mr Gugile Nkwinti, Minister of Rural Development and Development for compensation was R62.5 million shared by the community during a celebration organized by the Commission on Saturday 4 March 2017 at N'wamankena village.

 The Community was evicted from their land of birth through dispossession in 1968. The claimants are comprised of 282 households. Each family went home with a voucher worth R221, 894.00 as compensation for lost rights in land.

 The compensation comes as a result of the Commission having finalized the land claim paving a way for the claimants to be awarded a total amount of R62.5 million in compensation after being forcibly evicted from their ancestral land when the Promotion of Self-Government Act No 46 of 1959 was implemented mainly to establish homelands to separate ethnic groupings, i.e. Gazankulu, Venda, Bophuthatswana and Lebowa.

 Some of the claimants related the sad incidents that accompanied the forced removals:

 "Members of the Community were not afforded any opportunity to negotiate prior to the forceful removal, and no compensation was given of whatsoever. Community members who attempted to resist the forced removal were threatened by government officials to be transported further to the proximity of game reserves," lamented Mr Jan Rikhotso Secretary of the now defunct community land claim committee.

 Ms Ndaheni N'wambhambhazi who was there in person when the events unfolded recalled the incidences while delivering a touching story on what really happened on that fateful day in 1968.

 "Most families were removed in the absence of the head of the family as majorities were working as migrant labour in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Kimberly. We suffered great loss as some of their valuable assets such as livestock were lost while they were on their way to the new residential sites. We did not recover any lost assets, and we were not compensated for our losses," said Gogo N'wambhamnhazi.

 She continued relating the disgraceful experience saying "we watched our pigs dying of starvation and we used to sleep under trees with little babies praying that it does not rain".

 Claimants opted for financial compensation since the land claimed is not feasible for restoration. The claimed land is occupied by part of the Mamaila Tribe.

 "Awarding financial compensation to the community does not necessary suggest that the Commission is moving away from its core mandate of restoring land to the communities. It's only the circumstances that are found during investigation of such claims which dictates that direction," Said Miyelani Nkatingi, Director for Operations in the Office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner, Limpopo province.

 Miyelani also gave a context of land ownership in the area that made it not an option to transfer the actual land to the claimants saying "most of the land in Mopani and Vhembe districts, particularly Giyani, Thulamela and Malamulela has been proclaimed as communal land which is controlled under tribal authorities by traditional leaders; therefore any attempt to restore the land would create social disruption within the area".

Commenting on the turnaround time that was experienced on this claim, Miyelani said that the thorough administrative and other due processes relating to the finalisation of a land claim meant that it would understandably have to take some time to finalise.

"We have to investigate and research and you have to negotiate, and therefore you have to budget for the particular project in order to finalise it. Claims usually take long because claimants at times are diseased and the next of kin do not have sufficient information," explained Nkatingi.

The claimed properties were Verschfontein 233 LT, Elandsfontein 235 LT, Modjadjieshoek (Makgakgapatse) and Pretoriushoek (Mamokgadi). The properties were designated for Sepedi speaking people and the N'wamankena claimants are a Tsonga speaking community