It seems to me that there are thousands of disingenuous people all over South Africa.
Consider, for instance, that story that is unfolding among the Macambini community on KwaZulu-Natal's North Coast. The community has threatened to completely disrupt all economic activity in the region because it has a dispute over the development of the land on which they live with KZN Premier S'bu Ndebele.
In fact, the Macambini community has even threatened to block the N2 highway and the Mandeni toll plaza as well as the old R102 main road.
Let's step back in history for a moment to 2002. Then, a group of Mangete farmers who are part of the Macambini clan got together and submitted 199 land claims for 736 hectares of prime sugar cane farmland. At the time the Mangete Landowners' Association objected to this claim saying they had an ancestral right to the land that dates back to the 1850s.
You see many of the members of the Landowners' Association were descendants of a Scottish hunter, John Dunn, who had been granted custodianship of land from Babnango to the sea and from the Tugela to the Mhlatuzi rivers. Custodianship was granted by none other than Zulu King Cetshwayo.
Old John Dunn was evidently a consummate sex-lover for he greedily took 47 wives and produced no fewer than 119 children.
However, the Land Claims Court found that the Macambini community did, in fact, have more of an ancestral right to the land than the Dunn descendants and allocated 736 hectares to the claimants. It also set aside R7m for the community to buy a further 460 hectares from willing sellers in the area. Eventually a total of 1,196 hectares was granted to members of the Macambini clan.
So why are the clan members threatening to disrupt all economic activity in the region? It seems that Ndebele and his cronies granted development rights to a Dubai company to develop 16,500 hectares of land as the multibillion AmaZulu World.
As a result about 8,500 families would have to move off their ancestral land and you can probably understand their outrage. I mean the premier of province has unilaterally done a deal with a foreign company, Ruwaad, based in Dubai, to once again move them off their land.
So the community, armed with sticks and knopkieries, marched on the premier's office carrying placards and even carrying a coffin supposedly reserved for Ndebele himself. According to the organiser of the march, Khanyisani Shange, the premier's office has just seven days to issue a public statement saying that it has cancelled the deal with Ruwaad.
In a show of grave (forgive the pun) pathos, Macambini resident Mhlabawonke Mnguni said that people had even stopped burying their loved ones on the land because they fear the graves will be desecrated sometime in the future. Instead, he says, the Macambini people are burying their dead in Eshowe some distance away.
AmaZulu World was planned as an internationally branded entertainment theme park complete with shopping centres, a sports village and with dedicated education and health villages for the benefit of the community. In addition, hotels, resorts, spas, a marina and a luxury housing estate were to be built amid a nature reserve and sanctuary.
One must remember, that while such developments are likely to boost economic activity in the region, this should not be done at the expense of taking away land that has particularly strong ancestral significance.
So imagine my surprise when I discover that, behind the scenes, the Macmabini community – amid howls of protest about Ndebele and Ruwaad Holdings – had in fact signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bukhatir Group, also in Dubai, to use 500 hectares of land claimed through the Land Claims Court to build a R50bn sports city with high-rise residential and commercial towers, a shopping mall, a five-star hotel and golf course, a stadium and a variety of other amenities.
In truth, the ancestral land doesn't actually matter one jot to the community at all.
What matters is that two foreign groups have both been given rights to develop the land. The Macambini community is now fighting with Ndebele because he'd allocated development rights to Ruwaad while the community itself had made a deal with Bukhatir.
It seems to me that as soon as a developer with a suitcase full of money walks into a community all the ancestral values vanish out of the window. It's just six years ago that the Macambini community appealed to the Land Claims Court and succeeded in winning a case because they had unfairly uprooted from land that belonged to their ancestors.
Now they'll sell off that land at an enormous profit to enrich themselves.
It's their land. So, I guess, they can do what they like with it.
However, because Ndebele had signed a deal for a similar development with a different developer, the community threatens to bring all economic activity to a halt so that they can get their own way.
So that they can ensure their deal, not Ndebele's, goes ahead.
Why, when Ndebele was negotiating the deal with Ruwaad, did the Macambini residents not speak up and say: "Whoa, hold your horses, Ndebele, we're doing a deal with Bukhatir." Instead they said nothing.
It seems to me that the Macambini community was deliberately trying to keep their "options open" until they knew what enrichment they'd receive.
That's wrong – at least I think it's wrong.
The quicker that Africa – and all Africans for that matter – become more direct, more open, transparent and honest about their intentions and their plans the better for us all. We're can no longer barter around a village pump when we're dealing with foreign investors carrying bucket-loads of money.
When you're talking about R50bn you no longer negotiate deals around the village pumps of Africa.
Let's see what Ndebele does now – and let's see if either of the Dubai-based developers actually go ahead with their investment. Personally, I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if both walk away.
*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and don't pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddyhar@telkomsa.net.
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