A R200-million land claim in the Richtersveld will only be resolved next year after the Kimberley High Court postponed the case until February. The court is being asked to decide on the legitimacy of the Communal Property Association to run farming operations in the area.
Two groups are disputing control of the association. In February next year the courts will hear claims from Edwin Farmer and seven others that the committee of the CPA was not legally constituted and did not have the right to make decisions.
The CPA and eleven others are claiming that no new committee had been appointed and this means that the incumbent chairman Willem 'Mannetjie' Diergaardt and his committee are seeking legitimacy as representatives of the community.
The Richtersveld CPA was formed in 2001 in accordance with the Communal Property Association Act. It is to oversee development in the Richtersveld that includes the towns of Lekkersing, Khuboes, Eksteenfontein and Sanddrift.
The Richtersveld community won the largest land claim settlement against the state after it was ordered to pay R200-million including rights to property and agricultural land and mining rights through the troubled Alexkor state diamond company.
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