Community association succeeds in securing land thirty years after dispossession

Location: Molemole Local Municipality in Capricorn District, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Timeline: 1996-2003

Principal organisations: NKUZI

Between 1941 and 1965 communities in the Capricorn District Municipality, Limpopo Province, were dispossessed of their lands. Members of the community were issued ‘trek passes’ when they refused to become labour tenants on the land they occupied. These passes were old apartheid style documents formalising forced removals. As a consequence, the communities were forced to scatter and relocate. Marobala-O-Itsose Communal Property Association (CPA) was set up in 2003 to address the claim lodged by these communities to reclaim their lands. Nkuzi facilitated the processes to merge the claims into one community claim. In 2004, the community witnessed the restitution of the land, regaining control over their land after thirty years of struggle.