News

Released - 01 September 2010

At last . . . . a court date for the Broederstroom Land Claim

For some time now I have felt a little like Sisyphus from Greek mythology. By way of explanation he was a king of Corinth, son of Aeolus, famed for his cunning. He was killed by Theseus, and in the lower world was condemned by Pluto to roll to the top of a hill a huge stone, which constantly rolled back again, making his task incessant. Well finally we have managed to get our ‘stone’ to pause at the top of the hill and hopefully it will begin rolling down the hill next year . . . .

So what on earth am I talking about?

At the pre-trial conference that took place on Friday 26th August 2010 and attended by the various legal representatives of all stakeholder groups, we finally have had confirmation of a court date for the Broederstroom Land Claim. We will be in court from the 9th to the 14th May 2011.

I hope that you feel like I do . . . .relief that finally we have managed to overcome this first hurdle! I do have to stress though that this is simply the beginning of the next phase. Every time I engage those that are well-informed on land claims I am told that this is a very complex claim and that it will take a lot of work (and probably court time) to get to a result. We have had a full court week allocated so far and hopefully this will be adequate – only time will tell.

Whilst some have registered disappointment at the delay until May next year we are actually quite pleased. There seems to be a lot more work that will have to be done as we prepare for court. This as a result of issues raised both at the pre-trial conference and in subsequent discussion with our legal team. We have planned a strategy meeting for late September and will report on all these outcomes at the AGM scheduled for some time in October.

So well done everyone for hanging in! We have achieved the first major hurdle and hopefully this is the beginning of the journey that will finally dispose of the land claim.

Patrick Jonsson
Chairman
Broederstroom Land Claim Committee

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Committee or of the appointed legal team.

"The power of the collective is far greater than the power of one"