Yesterday the Deputy of Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Dirk du Toit returned 2,300 hectares of land that included the four-star Sunbird Farm lodge on the Sabie River to the Mpamalanga tribe. The tribe had been forcefully removed from the area in the 1930’s. Du Toit said the government would do “everything in its power to satisfy its entire people”, and had prioritized land restitutions along with other programs to help distribute the land fairly. The Mpamalanga will use the land for businesses and put the funds generated into a trust to build clinics, schools and other community projects; they do not plan to settle the land. This is the first transfer of land in a series of claims in the “Panorama Route District”. On the same day the Limpopo community received control of some of their ancestral lands, which they have already leased to Anglo-Platinum. The company has promised to donate towards community development and rehabilitate the land they use.
