Durban — Members of the Indian Land Claimants Association (ILCA) handed over a memorandum to the eThekwini Municipality on Monday at the Durban City Hall requesting that the 30-year wait for land claims be addressed.
The chairperson of the Indian Land Claimants Association, Robin Naidoo, said the Ilca represents land claimants in the eThekwini Municipality region who lost their land in Inanda, Glen Anil, Malacca Road, Durban North, Riverside, Greyville Block AK, Cato Manor, Sydenham, Overport, Springfield, Newlands, Phoenix, Chatsworth, Avoca, Bluff, Merebank, Pinetown, Jacobs, among others.
Naidoo said their land claims were lodged from 1992-1998 and in 2014.
“Unfortunately, in the past 30 years there seems to have been no will on the part of eThekwini Municipality to sit with the Land Claims Commission and us victims of apartheid via the Group Areas Act,” Naidoo said.
Naidoo and the Ilca requested the intervention of everyone in the eThekwini Municipality to assist in breaking deadlocks and “feet-dragging”.
Since 2019, Naidoo said he had sent letters to current and ex-mayors, deputy mayors and city managers, but he was ignored.
“Actually, my first letters are from 1996 onwards, in my personal capacity and as secretary of the ex-Malacca Road Ratepayers Association to Council. They were also ignored.
“Last year, I sent photos of an illegal incomplete factory on my claimed land at 140 Legacy Road, Durban North. There was no response from acting real estate director, even to pictures of illegal dumping, and an illegal landfill site on claimed lands on Ryde Place, Durban North.
“We are requesting the executives of eThekwini to resolve this matter as soon as possible by engaging with us and the Land Claims Commission in the open and above board.
“We further request that the council accept historic values in settlements, as we are victims of apartheid and the council must not profit out of apartheid and seek current market value.
“This was not the intention of the ANC government in 1996.”
The official who received the memorandum at the City Hall said officials would look into the matter.
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