SOUTH Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled on October 25 a platinum miner that has a deal with a tribal chief could not evict a group of black farmers.
Land rights are a red-hot issue ahead of elections in 2019 as the African National Congress (ANC) moves for constitutional change aimed at a more equitable distribution of land, said the newswire service.
This includes expropriating land from whites without compensation, but also addressing the plight of poor blacks vulnerable to forced evictions in tribal lands because of deals stuck by local chiefs under a property rights system with roots in the colonial and apartheid eras.
At issue in the case before the Constitutional Court was a deal agreed with the council of the Bakgatla tribe to allow Pilanesberg Platinum Mines (PPM), a unit of unlisted Sedibelo Platinum Mines, to evict farmers to expand its open-pit mine.
The farmers argued that they were the rightful owners of the farm and needed to be consulted before mining took place, said Reuters.
