Land dispossession and restitution in South Africa : a case study of the Ravele Community in Luvuvhu Valley, Limpopo Province (1890-1994)

Abstract

Based on the Afrocentric perspective, this study explored the impact of landlessness that descended upon the Ravele Community after their forced removal from original Mauluma, around the Luvuvhu River and on western side of Tshakhuma: in 1921 and in 1936. The river was then corruptly renamed Levubu River. It is as a result of the impact of the forced removal of the Ravele community during that period that the study is located around the Luvuvhu Valley. The Raveles were relocated to New Mauluma (Beaconsfield) in the Nzhelele Valley. During that period the Raveles were forced to occupy different places around the Luvuvhu Valley and elsewhere as some of them became scattered. It suffices to say that the establishment of the Luvuvhu Valley was meant to benefit the newly resettled ‘poor whites’, as part of the resettlement programme of the white administration, such that the Raveles bore the sever brunt of the forced removal. They became impoverished since their source of socio-economic life had been taken away when they were removed from the Luvuvhu Valley. The study shows that poverty had many dimensions because it is/ was not only limited to economic poverty but permeated all spheres of life. This included a person’s self-respect, the harshness of living as well as a feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness. It suffices to say that impoverishment was made to strategically maintain the political and economic power of the white minority, especially in this study of the Luvuvhu Valley. Their forced removal affected their livelihood because the Nzhelele Valley is/ was rocky, dry, barren and even infertile. As a result, they were unable to cultivate as productively as before and/ or provide adequate grazing for their livestock. At New Mauluma the Raveles were placed under George Mbulaheni Mphephu, whose thovhele (kingship) status had by then been reduced to that of khosikhulu (principal senior traditional leader). Their socio-political life was affected since their vhuhosi (senior traditional leadership) status was reduced to vhugota (headmanship/ vhamusanda). In essence the Raveles’ new status was a demotion because to this date they are still fighting to restore their vhuhosi status. Although, land restitution is one of the pillars of land reform in South Africa, since it was implemented in the mid-1990s, after the implementation of South Africa’s democratic dispensation in 1994 (and is still in progress), the Raveles are still in the dark regarding the finalization of their claim to have Old Mauluma fully restituted to them. Experience in some restituted land in South Africa has shown that direct transfer without sufficient post-settlement support could lead to land restitution failures which are a source of embarrassment to the democratic government. Equally the government has been blamed for adopting a top-down approach in finding a solution to the challenge of transferring the expensive fertile Luvuvhu Valley to the Raveles as the rightful and original owners. The government has also been blamed for using the expertise of white owned agribusinesses, whose interests on land restitution are/ were to make profit. As a result, of their class position, as members of the petty bourgeois, many white settler farmers opposed land restitution by refusing to sell their farms to the government. The researcher identified and preferred to ground the study on the Afrocentric theory since it puts African values at the centre. It will also assist in debunking the Eurocentric/Western and liberal approach to issues that affect Africans.