The Matiwaneskop community in the Mnambithi-Ladysmith Local Municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal find themselves between a rock and a hard place with their rights as private landowners being violated by the municipality and local traditional leader, Inkosi Ntandoyenkosi Shabalala.
This Matiwaneskop story feeds into existing tension regarding the roles and functions of traditional leaders versus local government.
The battle in Matiwaneskop centres on the construction of a community hall without the approval of the syndicate committee of owners responsible for managing land in Matiwaneskop.
Matiwaneskop was bought in the early 20th century by a group of people who seceded from a community in Swaziland after objecting to a Swazi chief’s autocratic rule.
A committee of three trustees and six community members was established to manage the land on behalf of the larger land-buying syndicate.
This is clearly reflected in the syndicate’s constitution.
However, under the racially discriminatory laws of the apartheid government, the land was expropriated and transferred to state ownership in 1981.
The community succeeded in reclaiming their ownership back in 2006. This was a significant victory for the people of Matiwaneskop and the deed of transfer states clearly that the land is owned by the community.
Matiwaneskop still manages its land affairs through a syndicate committee, whose membership changes every five years.
The current residents of Matiwaneskop are the fourth generation after the initial land-buyers, along with people who moved into the area later.
Committee members articulate clearly that the syndicate is not against the development of a community hall for the ward.
However, as the structure elected by landowners and authorised to manage the land, they demand to be consulted and to approve and advise on the construction. So far their authority and knowledge have been undermined and disregarded.
According to the committee, the first they heard about the plan to build a hall was through rumours in 2014.
They heard that ward councillor, PS Hlatshwayo, planned to build this hall as an incentive to secure his re-election in the recent municipal election.
The ward councillor eventually approached the committee for permission to build the hall and a site was allocated in an area designated for development.
However, the allocation was contested by people living in the vicinity of the site. This opposition was bolstered when a homestead was erected on the site, forcing the syndicate committee to find an alternative site.
While the committee was waiting to show the ward councillor the alternative site, however, construction started on grounds next to Mngcengele, a local high school. This is a different site from the alternative site the committee had decided on.
When the committee asked who had approved the construction, they were sent from pillar to post with no real answers.
The builders referred them to the owner of the construction company, who in turn referred them to the municipality, where no one took forward their complaints.
The committee asked the builders to stop construction while they tried to arrange a meeting with the ward councillor, but in vain.
After three letters to the ward councillor, the committee has received no response.
All the while work on the construction site is continuing.
Deputy mayor, Sindiswa Mfusi, said in response to the syndicate committee’s allegations that although she had heard about the Matiwaneskop issue when it first surfaced, no follow-up action was taken because she was writing exams at the time.
The mayoral manager, Bhekinkosi Xaba, confirmed that a meeting was held with the Matiwaneskop syndicate committee when they first raised their concerns, but said the matter proceeded no further.
Xaba said the construction was approved, but he declined to say by whom.
He said another meeting could be arranged with the syndicate committee and the new ward councillor after local government elections had been finalised.
The acting executive director of the municipality’s Infrastructure and Engineering Department, Oscar Hlatshwayo, said that “Permission to Occupy” (or a so-called PTO) for the construction of the hall had been obtained from local chief, Shabalala.
Repeated attempts to reach Shabalala and outgoing councillor, Hlatshwayo, were unsuccessful.
This saga of the community hall demonstrates the blatant disregard of the syndicate committee as a managing and decision-making body of Matiwaneskop, and calls into question the motivation behind building the hall, especially in the run-up to the August 3 municipal elections.
Some in the community say Shabalala has spoken to the ward councillor, dismissed the committee’s claims as nonsense, and ordered construction to proceed.
Members of the syndicate committee have received threatening letters from Shabalala’s legal representative, too. One, for example, bars the committee from holding community meetings. The committee has chosen to ignore these letters.
An elder of the community said Shabalala had no right to administer land at Matiwaneskop since the land belonged to all the descendants of the initial land buyers.
Shabalala is one of these descendants, but equal to the rest.
Only the syndicate committee has the authority to administer land.
In fact, the initial group of land buyers arrived in Matiwaneskop with no inkosi.
It was only later that a member of the Shabalala family was elevated to this position.
His name was explicitly changed to “Mbekwa” to signify his being placed in that position by the community.
Despite the promise of a future meeting with municipal officials for the syndicate committee, the damage has been done.
Ward councillors are voted into their positions on the promise of serving the needs and interests of the people.
Yet, by taking instructions from Shabalala, instead of consulting with the syndicate committee and the broader community, the councillor is betraying this history and undermining the title deed won by the people of Matiwaneskop.
It is a grave injustice that this community finds itself facing yet another battle on land that belongs to them.
It is unclear what the results of the August 3 elections will mean for the people of Matiwaneskop. While it has been confirmed that Matiwaneskop will soon have a new ward councillor, the name could not be released because they had not yet been inaugurated.
The people of Matiwaneskop await with great hope that the newly-constituted local government will intervene and take their voices seriously.
* Thiyane Duda is a researcher with the Land & Accountability Research Centre in the Department of Public Law at UCT.