https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / Author Interviews RSS ← Back
Africa|Lifting
Africa|Lifting
africa|lifting
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My family’s quest to reclaim our land – Lebogang Seale

Close

Embed Video

One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My family’s quest to reclaim our land – Lebogang Seale

Lebogang Seale unpacks his book 'One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My family’s quest to reclaim our land' (Camera: Nicholas Boyd; Editing: Darlene Creamer)

12th September 2024

ARTICLE ENQUIRY      SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

‘“Do you see that big tree on our right?” asked Isaac, as soon as we had crossed the river. “Wellington used to have lunch and rest there when he was ploughing the fields. It was him, Jambren, and Monyebere. Sometimes they would work until late in the evening or through the night, by tractor lights.”

With that single mention of Jambren’s name, Isaac had triggered what became an animated, lengthy conversation about the many Afrikaner farmers in the Letaba-Mooketsi valley and how our land was taken away. Their names were popular in the region, so much so that you could swear there was something otherworldly about them. There was Jambren’s brother Rossi (Stephanus Ross Pohl), their father Thununu (Stephan Montaque Pohl), as well as Fresi (Fritz de Beer) and Jako (a Mr. Duvenage).’

This is the Seale family story, about the travails of lifting themselves out of the morass of poverty and deprivation land dispossession has created. As the name suggests, this book is a heart-breaking account of the impact of South Africa’s failing and flailing land reform on ordinary people desperate for restorative justice – in this case it is the author’s ancestral land. It reveals that not only is the ideal of land reform in South Africa a criminal failure and monumental disappointment, but more than that, it is a betrayal.

The Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994, and especially Section 25 of the Constitution, specifically affirmed an individual’s right to land restitution. As such, there were great expectations that the Natives Land Act of 1913 and other subsequent legislation that formalised land dispossession would be reversed. However, as we have seen, land reform in South Africa has been painfully slow and complex.

Lebogang Seale’s extraordinary story is told through the voices of his family and community members. They reveal the pain of living and working on white people’s farms, the same land which had been stolen from their family. They describe the struggle of battling bureaucracy and the endless time they have devoted to trying to reclaim their ancestral land.

Advertisement

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lebogang Seale is a multi-award-winning journalist and media and communications practitioner. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism and Media Studies from Wits University, and has a wealth of experience in the mainstream media spanning over a decade. He has served as the editor of the Sunday Independent and has also managed the University of Johannesburg’s Strategic Communications division. He is a co-author of the book, The A-Z of South African Politics, Jacana Media.

Advertisement

'One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My family’s quest to reclaim our land' is published by Jacana Media

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE ARTICLE ENQUIRY

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za