Zuma’s nephew launches land claim on 60 KZN Midlands farms

View of a typical KZN Midlands farm - over 60 of which are to be subjected by land claims from President Zuma's clan
View of a typical KZN Midlands farm – more than 60 of which are about to become the subject of  land claims by President Zuma’s nephew Simpiwe

Having farmed in the KZN Midlands, I was always aware of two important issues. First, that the land is extraordinarily rich and therefore likely to attract opportunists who’d like to use their influence to advantage. But secondly, according to the local historian anyway, that there were unlikely to be any successful land claims in the district because when they arrived two centuries back, European settlers were able to inhabit vast tracts of unoccupied land. Apparently the Zulu people much preferred living in more hospitable regions of the then colony – far away from the Midland’s icy winter weather.  That theory is about to be tested in the highest courts in the land by a claimant from South Africa’s most politically powerful family. – AH

From the SA Press Association:

The nephew of President Jacob Zuma has launched a land claim targeting more than 60 farms in Impendle in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, The Citizen reported on Monday.

“I do not think there is any dispute around that — that entire land was historically under the KwaNxamalala Tribal Authority,” Inkosi Simpiwe Zuma, who presides over the kwaNxamalala community in Impendle, was quoted as saying.

He said most of the commercial farms in the area would be subject to the land claim, and that the tribal authority was conducting research to establish the extent of the land.

“I cannot tell you… how vast the land is… that is why we need to first conduct our own research. But all I’m prepared to say at the moment is that the claim is huge,” he told the publication.

The kwaNxamalala in Impendle, which is separate from the kwaNxamalala in Nkandla, is President Zuma’s ancestral home.

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