Newsletter

Released - 17 October 2025

Dear Member

Forthcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM)

The 2025 AGM has been scheduled as follows:

Date: 1 November 2025 Time: 10H00 to 12H00
Venue: Allengeni Wedding and Events Centre
L63 (Leeuwenkloof) along the Hartbeeshoek Road.
Coordinates: 25048’33.1”S 27049’25.8”E

The AGM is an important one as it will bring members up to date on the land claim, provide a financial update including the 2025 LCAG financial statements, provide a membership review and update, amend or elect new Committee members, and seek to answer any questions members may have.

As per the LCAG Constitution, a quorum of 25% of members is needed. Your attendance at the AGM is therefore important. If you are unable to attend, please provide a proxy for the meeting. The Agenda together with proxy forms are available on the LCAG website www.broederstroomlandclaim.co.za

Payment of accounts

Once again, thank you to those who have brought your accounts up-to-date and to those who have made substantial payments. Also, again a very big thank you to those who have sponsored a neighbour/neighbours who were unable to pay their subscription. On a positive note, the flow of funds into LCAG has been substantial this year which has been bolstered by new members joining LCAG and we are now close to being able to fund the legal fees for our anticipated court case.

Given that we are fast nearing our day in court, this month is probably the last month that community members whose properties have been removed from our database and who seek to be reinstated, will be able to approach us provided they are prepared to settle their account. Similarly, members still in arrears should please settle their outstanding accounts and finalise any administrative paperwork required (e.g. the Power of Attorney form (POA)) to regain or retain their good standing).

LCAG has dispatched account statements for members to scrutinise their account and good standing. There are still payments which were made into the LCAG bank account, where the member did not provide the required reference number for LCAG to allocate the payment to the member’s property. We therefore urge members to please scrutinise their account and to also please ensure that their contact information/details of the property is accurate, and that the required Power of Attorney (POA) is in place, as the database for the LCAG court list will be amended prior to the next and hopefully final pre-trial conference on 14 November 2025.

The Committee recently published a list on its website (www.broederstroomlandclaim.co.za) of those properties within the Claim which are/are not represented by LCAG so that landowners may recognise the potential risk to their own properties by proximity to unrepresented properties if the Claim is resolved in our favour. However, we are bound by the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act and cannot release personal information. Accordingly, the lists designate the farm and property title only as we cannot tie this to ownership information.

Pre Trial Conference of 8 October 2025

We were hoping that this was to be the final pre-trial conference as there appeared to be no outstanding issues, but we were once again to be disappointed. Two issues were tabled:

• The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) had concluded negotiations with both the Land Claims Commissioner as well as the plaintiff regarding the release of its property from the claim (Weldaba and a Portion of Welgegund), and they submitted a draft order which had certain shortcomings. An amended draft order will therefore be circulated amongst the parties and submitted to the presiding Judge in chambers. It was however recorded that the State have complied with all the provisions of that draft order and that they will be submitting a report as required by the draft order.
• The Advocate for the plaintiff indicated that she does not have proper instructions from the Legal Aid Board (are paying the legal costs for the plaintiffs) and that she would need to clarify her instructions with the plaintiffs’ attorney.

Under the circumstances the Judge scheduled the next pre-trial for 14 November 2025. Our legal representative has once again expressed confidence that this will be the final pre-trial conference and that following this, a court date will be set by the Judge especially as she still seems eager to get this long outstanding land claim before the Court.

We look forward to seeing you at our AGM on 1 November.

On behalf of the 26778 Land Claim Committee

Regards

Pedro Carvalho
Treasurer,
26778 Land Claim Action Group

29 April 2025

Our bank account details
26778 Land Claim Committee; Standard Bank; Van Der Walt Street PTA.
Clearing Code 010145; Cheque account 410776882.
Please email the deposit slip to accounts@broederstroomlandclaim.co.za.  Please use your membership number as a reference.

__________________o0o_________________

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