Lorato Khobetsi-Slinger
A 71-year-old pensioner Fredericka Swartz was one of the first Rehoboth residents to be allocated a piece of land by the town council. As part of phase one of its land distribution programme, the Rehoboth Town Council handed out plots to residents.
The council has reserved 150 erven in Block H for residents who have been on the waiting list, as well those identified in the Rukoro Report of 1992. An excited Swartz, who currently lives in a two-room shack with her husband and five other family members in the Kuvukiland informal settlement, said although she could not remember exactly when she applied for a piece of land, she was happy to finally own a plot.
“I am really happy that I finally got a plot after so many years of walking to these offices to follow up on my application. I used to visit this office two or three times a week to do enquiries. I am really grateful that I am one of the beneficiaries today,” said Swartz.
The chairperson of the Rehoboth Town council management committee, Winston Uirab, said of the 150 beneficiaries for phase one, about 50, were those identified in the Rukoro Report. He further said the remaining erven were divided amongst ordinary applicants, as well as illegal land grabbers that were residing on council land earmarked for other developments.
“Because council is currently sitting with a huge backlog of erven applications, we have erven for the Rukoro beneficiaries; it is a programme that was started way back but was never implemented in full. We have the normal backlog of erven applications, as well as double allocations, so what we resolved was not to solely focus on the Rukoro Report and we decided to combine the three lists,” he said.
The Rukoro Report of 1992 was compiled by then-attorney general Vekuii Rukoro and endorsed by Cabinet to make 3 000 erven available to displaced black people under apartheid rule, within the boundaries of the town and 2 500 to the Rehoboth basters under the paternal laws.
According to Uirab, 350 erven in Block H, extension 1 and 2, were surveyed and partially serviced with water provision in phase one and two of the land delivery process. “For now, we want to get the ball rolling – and from these two phases, we don’t want to stop with the land delivery. I cannot deny that the land issue is a burning issue; a lot of people are waiting for land. And what we want to do is avail vacant land. We do have land; it is just a matter of surveying and servicing those areas and put people on the plots – of course, following the right procedures,” said Uirab.