Newsletter

Released - 19 March 2025

Dear Member

SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING

A Special General Meeting (SGM) was held on 22 February at the Alengeni Wedding and Events Venue, at which 68 members were present, and the Committee held a further 47 proxies.

For those not present at the meeting, Pedro Carvalho made a comprehensive presentation covering:

• Land claim review and update
• Financial update
• Review of membership
• Reason for a call for additional subscriptions to fund two specialist reports in support of our defence of the claim
• Vote on the above call for additional funds

Briefly, the next, hopefully final, Pre-Trial conference is set for 13 May 2025. The reason for another pre-trial is that the Commissioner has not yet served notice on all non-registered members, and some members who had been served, appointed their own legal team who needed time to get up to speed with the case.

To prevent future delays, the Committee supports a motion that the Commissioner may serve these notices by newspaper advertisement.

The vote on a Resolution of Members to call for an additional R4,500 per property to fund two updated specialist reports in support of our defence was carried. These amounts were invoiced to all members on 3 March and are required to be fully settled by 31 May 2025. Any member not having received these updated invoices should please contact Pedro Carvalho urgently at: accounts@broederstroomlandclaim.co.za; contact number 082 337 0203.

Members should please note that the bookkeeper is only engaged once per month to save on costs and recent payments since 28 February may not be reflected in these statements.

Please use your account number or portion number as a reference for the payment advice. Many people say "Land Claim Action Group" and then the reference. The bank statement, then only shows "Land Claim Action Group", due to the limited field space and makes it impossible to allocate the money to a member's profile.

In his Financial Update Pedro showed the estimated amounts to fund the Court hearing and the funds estimated to be available as well as the estimated shortfall. These figures may be obtained by application to Pedro at: accounts@broederstroomlandclaim.co.za

Finally, Pedro's presentation showed coloured maps indicating represented and unrepresented properties, as well as members' payment status. The maps, which have already been circulated, also show the 50-odd members tentatively scheduled to have their membership terminated for not being in good standing.

The Committee extends thanks to all members contacting their neighbours to confirm that they are registered, and paid with valid POAs. This is a community commitment at its best and invaluable to LCAG. Any members in doubt about the status of their neighbouring properties should contact Pedro, as above.

IMPORTANT LAND CLAIM JUDEMENTS OF NOTE

The Farm Uitkyk 184 IP Ventersdorp, NW Province

Prior to a final court hearing the Plaintiffs and 5 of the Defendants (who had legal representation) had reached a settlement recorded in a Court Order.

The 6th defendant as well as the 7th defendant were not represented by a legal team but arrived at court on the first day of the trial to represent themselves. By that time the State and the Claimants had already agreed on the terms contained in the court order. Due to the fact that these two defendants did not file any papers or had access to experts, they were informed of the agreement referred to above and had to consent to the terms of the agreement. The different portions of the farm Uitkyk were then acquired by the State and transferred to the Claimants.

This illustrates how the rights of Defendants not represented by a legal team were ignored or over-ruled by the Judge in favour of represented Defendants who had already agreed a settlement.

The Farm Rosmincol 442JP Syferfontein claimed by the Bahring Community .

This case was initially won in the Land Claims Court by the same lawyers representing LCAG. However, the Claimants applied for leave to appeal and were granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal. The SCA referred the matter back to the Land Claims Court to hear further evidence on the aspect of feasibility. At that point the landowners (Defendants) had run out of funds to litigate and therefore the landowners were not represented in the second hearing on feasibility. It turned out that the State and the Claimants, in the absence of the landowners, again entered into an agreement that the land be acquired and transferred to the Claimants. This was as a direct result of the landowners not being represented before Court. The agreement was then made an Order of Court and the whole farm transferred to the Claimants.

This illustrates the necessity of being represented at all stages of the court process including any appeal hearing.

Regards

Pedro Carvalho
Treasurer,
26778 Land Claim Action Group

19 March 2025

Our bank account details
26778 Land Claim Committee; Standard Bank; Van Der Walt Street PTA.
Clearing Code 010145; Cheque account 410776882.
Please email the deposit slip to accounts@broederstroomlandclaim.co.za.  Please use your membership number as a reference.

__________________o0o_________________

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Committee or of the appointed legal team.