Watch: Half-a-century later, these apartheid victims have got their land back

Removed in the 1960s, the Bakubung clan have finalised the list of beneficiaries of their land claim

By Adel Van Niekerk

18 January 2022

Members of the Bakubung ba Ratheo community in Molote City in the North West province have welcomed the announcement of the final list of recipients in one of South Africa’s oldest land claims cases.

The Bakubung’s land claim was lodged in 1992 and this year will mark three decades since the start of this protracted land restitution process. The village is in a rural area along the province’s platinum belt.

The community was forcefully removed in the 1960s under the 1913 Native Land Act and relocated a hundred kilometres away to a small town called Ledig close to Sun City.

While many of the original villagers from Molote City have died, their descendants are now returning to their ancestral land to conclude the restitution process. Among them are 88-year-old Mokolonyane Kubue who was one of those forcibly removed. With her are her daughter Portia and her niece Masenya. They travelled hundreds of kilometres to Molote City to form part of this historic gathering.