Government’s policy approach towards betterment dispossession amounted to 'second-class' treatment of betterment claimants, for a number of reasons, the most important of which are:

• It denied that rural people in the former homelands held and were dispossessed of land rights in terms of racially-discriminatory law and practice
• Consequently, it denied these people their right to restitution
• It redirected their claims to programmes that do not offer comparable benefits to restitution and that are hamstrung by conceptual and operational difficulties.

Thus it was necessary to devise and implement an advocacy strategy aimed at ensuring that victims of betterment dispossession are treated fairly and not denied their constitutional right to restitution.

One of the leaders of the campaign in Middledrift, Jongile Kosi from Lower Regu, explains it this like this:The campaign has broadened our scope of knowledge. Sometimes one is aware of a problem but unable to devise an effective way to resolve it. The campaign has provided the way. Forward!

How much progress has been made toward reversing the prejudicial policy of government?

The advocacy strategy aimed at re-claiming the constitution right to restitution for victims of betterment dispossession has been implemented since 1998. Over the past six years, various significant milestones have been reached. Some of these are as follows: The claim of the village of Cata in the Keiskammahoek District was the first betterment case to be settled under the restitution programme. The settlement agreement was signed on 7 October 2000. The value of the settlement was approximately R12m. Half of this money was set aside for development, and is administered by Amatole District Municipality for this purpose. (See the Cata story below)

In mid-2000 government revised its policy position toward ‘betterment and restitution’. The key new policy recommendations that were adopted read as follows: “That government changes its policy approach to betterment removals by acknowledging that some of these claims may satisfy the criteria of the restitution act. That a standard approach to the resolution of these claims be adopted. Key features of the approach should include:

• Standard investigation questions, that is to quantify individual’s loss to residential and arable land and to quantify group loss to commonage land.
• Usage of average loss and standard settlement offer wherever applicable for each claimant family within the claimant community.
• That a standard approach to restitution awards applies to betterment claims, thus promoting development in the communities.”

The Cata precedent, together with the new policy approach, were used to settle all lodged Keiskammahoek claims (in villages under communal tenure). This was achieved on 16 June 2002, with the signing of agreements for Upper Ngqumeya, Gwili-Gwili, Mtwaku, Ngobozana, Ndlovini, Gxulu (Upper and Lower) and Mnyameni (Upper and Lower). The value of the settlement was approximately R107m. Half of this money was set aside for development.

The progress outlined above has positive consequences for those communities that were dispossessed through betterment, which did lodge claims before the end of 1998. However, because of government prejudice at the time, very few managed to lodge timeously.  It is clear that less than 10% of betterment claims were lodged before 31 December 1998. Hence the final phase of the advocacy strategy aims to press for a re-opening of the lodgement window for victims of betterment dispossession, so that betterment communities have a fair chance to lodge their claims (Vulamasango Singene).

Why is the campaign important?

The homeland areas of the Eastern Cape are characterised by extreme poverty. The Eastern Cape is the poorest province in the country and the homelands are the poorest parts of the province. Over 70% of people living in these areas are poor. Unfortunately, the trend of worsening poverty was not halted, nevermind reversed after 1994. Instead the situation has deteriorated further. Clearly, the efforts that government has made to address the problem have been inadequate. Supplementary programmes and strategies are urgently required.

A government task team recently estimated that the value of land rights dispossessed through the implementation of betterment in the former homelands of Ciskei and Transkei was R12,8 billion. Above it was noted that government’s revised policy on betterment claims states that a standard approach to restitution awards, one that promotes development should be applied to them. It is therefore abundantly clear that a re-opening of lodgement for these claimants would enable to beginning of a development process in the former homelands that would play a major role in poverty eradication and economic development.

As Macule Vitsha, a 77 year old suvivor of betterment for Debe Marela puts it:
This campaign has united us in action and given us the opportunity to know each other, beyond the boundaries of our small villages. I view this campaign as something that will enable us to speak with one voice, and express our developmental needs collectively, as we strive towards eradicating poverty from our communities.

What is the Cata Story?

The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate that developmental restitution can play a key role in eradicating poverty and boosting local economic development.

In 2000 Cata was typical of any village situated in the former homelands of the Eastern Cape. Most people living there were poor; income levels were very low and there were virtually no jobs. Furthermore, the people lacked skills, having been subjected to sub-standard education. Generally speaking, the people received poor service delivery and were marginalised by inadequate infrastructure such as roads.   

The Cata Settlement Agreement was signed on 7 October 2000. In terms of the agreement, the monetary value of land rights dispossessed through the implementation of betterment was placed at almost R31 000 per household.

It was agreed that half of this money would be set aside for local development. The Amatole District Municipality (ADM) was tasked to administer the development process. ADM first commissioned a situation analysis, so that the planning could be undertaken in an informed way.

The planning process afforded the people of Cata, at village level, an opportunity to identify and prioritise their needs and decide how to address these priorities, in the knowledge that resources were secured for this purpose. In other words, decisions about the Cata development plan were not taken in Pretoria, in Bisho, or in East London; they were taken in Cata. And therefore, appropriate decisions were taken.  The plan that emerged through the process demonstrates a number of significant strengths. It was adopted by the community in mid-2003.

The plan amounts to a practical example of an integrated development plan for a rural locality. Significantly, the plan integrates infrastructure upgrading with economic development, with the explicit objective of eradicating poverty from Cata. For example, at a broad level, because of the importance of transportation networks to forestry, agriculture and tourism (which are the key sectors of planned economic growth), the upgrading of the road from Keiskammahoek to Cata is a priority infrastructure project. The plan also achieves integration at the more micro level. For example, the multi-purpose community hall will house a community museum, which is an integral component of the proposed heritage tourism project. 

The plan is comprehensive in both its coverage and detail. More specifically, the plan integrates five central development clusters. These are infrastructure, local economic development, forestry, agriculture, and planning, tenure and institutional arrangements.  Specific projects are identified and outlined for each of these clusters. 

One of the advantages of adopting an integrated approach to local development planning is that there is considerable potential for brokering in resources from different sources. The Cata community has already managed to broker resources from the following institutions, amongst others: the University of Fort Hare, DFID, the Provincial Department of Education and ADM. The reason that success was achieved in this regard is that the community was able to use its own contribution to the process (accessed through the restitution award) as a bargaining tool in its interactions with outside institutions.

After mid-2003, implementation of the plan commenced in all earnestness. The multi-purpose community hall has been built, as have three new classrooms at the primary school. Most of the already existing buildings at the school were upgraded. The headmaster of the primary school Bethwell Gcilitshana is pleased with the progress:
Restitution has definitely raised the standard of living here. We’ve got a R1,2 million community hall now, new classrooms – the most beautiful in the region – and many other improvements on their way. 

Since the headmaster spoke these words, emphasis has been placed on initiatives that generate income and resources for the local people. For example, a team of twenty local workers transformed a 75 hectare wattle jungle into a commercially-managed, locally-owned plantation, over twenty five households have bolstered their homestead agricultural production through the channelling and storage of run-off rain water, a farmers association has been set up to make use of repaired flood irrigation infrastructure, a local company is being set up to establish a 400ha pine plantation, and various tourism ventures have been conceptualised and will shortly be launched. All these processes are managed by a local Communal Property Association. Membership of this association is open to all residents of Cata, over eighteen years of age. It is still early days, but one thing is already clear: there is now substantial hope for the people of Cata.