Early Christmas present for Eastern Cape land claimants.

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The community of Tugela outside Aliwal North has received an early Christmas present to the tune of R34m.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform says the minister, Gugile Nkwinti, will officially hand over the money on Friday.

The amount of just over R34m, for the 1 300 members, will be the final settlement of their land claim.

The community were forcibly removed from their villages in 1960 in the then Herschel district by the former government in terms of the so called "Betterment Policy", and were later squashed into smaller and overcrowded areas in the Tugela area.

They were never compensated for the loss of their land, houses, livestock and grazing land.

There are 368 households and 1 300 beneficiaries who will each get R92 400.