The AIDC, Bench Marks Foundation, LAMOSA, ARD and community organisations came together on the 14th of May 2026 at Ramoga Community Hall in North West. About 90 people attended the meeting to discuss strategies for protecting and strengthening the Maledu Judgement, assess the community situation regarding threats to IPILRA and advance the development of the law from below. The Lesetlheng Community Leadership welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited people to reflect honestly on their own struggles and to develop meaningful solutions to the problems facing the community.
The meeting resolved to form a Coordinating Committee or Right2SayNo (R2SN) Task Team in the area to facilitate information sharing, community mobilisation, and the strengthening of local networks.
A field visit to Lesetlheng took place the following day, where the story of land restitution and government plans for mining expansion on agricultural land was shared, and how communities have been calling for support and other interventions from people and institutions was brought to light. Below is the story of Grace Maledu reflecting on the above land restitution and the threats to Maledu’s judgment as a result.
The Maledu judgment of the Constitutional Court in 2018 was the successful community outcome after years of litigation initiated by the Chief’s mining company, Itereleng or IBMR. IBMR has since been acquired by Pilanesberg Platinum Mining (PPM), a subsidiary of Sedibelo Resources. The chief is still a director of Sedibelo, registered in Guernsey and listed in Canada.
After the successful Constitutional Court case, the Lesetlheng Land Committee, representing the community and its clans, split and three sets of lawyers negotiated a settlement agreement with the mine. This resulted in the establishment of the Community Trust, which is supposed to become the owner of three new farms purchased for the community and trust money, consisting of rental income from the farm Wilgespruit.
Then the Lesetlheng Community took the matter to arbitration, which was presided over by retired judge Dikgang Moseneke. The Moseneke arbitration award confirmed that the community is the customary-law owner of the land, through the community clans that purchased it in the first decade of the twentieth century. The land was then registered in the name of the “Secretary for Native Affairs” because black people could not be registered as owners. During the arbitration process, the problem recurred, and we got stuck until the numbers declined, making it difficult to reach a quorum.
Nothing has been paid. We went to the Moseneke arbitration from the 3rd to the 5th May 2022. Then the Moseneke ruling was issued in August 2022. After that, the problem started again, but the Moseneke ruling was that each and every clan must choose two people to represent them all. In all, there were 26 people, and they went to the mine, presenting themselves as representatives of the people. There is a problem now: chieftaincy came in, so from that time until today, we are not together as before anymore because the chieftaincy says that when we get the trust account, it must be written in their grandfather’s name. Then, that brings another problem, we are still stuck again, so we argued but at the end, the mine also intervened and called us to a meeting and informed us how the trust account gets opened it is not as simple as we think it is not about nominating anyone to be our representative, there are rules that must be followed so they said there must be 4-5 people representing the community and one independent. We also got stuck in this case, so at the moment we are divided; we now have two groups: the Chieftancy and the community, but in the end, we have managed to open a trust account. The only problem is that PPM does not have the money, but the account still exists, and the same issue persists. The company has no money to pay into the trust account. For instance, this meeting was supposed to be held at Lesetlheng Community, not at Ramoga, but the chieftaincy refused us permission to meet in Lesetlheng.
We are not working with the chieftaincy; we are just running our own processes because we are the owners of the land, and I said there is no one who is going to stop us from fighting for our property rights. That land was bought by our great-grandfathers, so they were still using it. My father left us there, and he died in 2002. He is still with us, and my mother died in 2003, a year after my dad. They left us there, we will not be removed there, but now my three brothers have been removed to Wag ‘n Bietjie, they were the first group to be relocated then, and again they wanted to relocate us but refused to be removed in 2014, we lived there until 2020 then they wanted to remove us again in 2020 where we lived before and some of us refused we are still living there.
The mining company has still not paid any rental or other compensation in respect of its use of Wilgespruit. PPM started a new pit and a new shaft on Wilgespruit and then stopped at the end of 2023. Some of us are still at Wilgespruit on the side of the dam, where there is no mining. Our occupation at the dam that we built is under threat. PPM wants a mining right for underground mining under our nearby farm in Kruidfontein. The decline shaft and underground ramp will start at Wilgespruit and continue underground from Magazynskraal to Kruidfontein, Modderkuil and Middelkuil.
How many clans are we talking about?
Let’s say we are 17 clans, if I am not mistaken, but all in all, before they removed us, we were 37 clans/houses, but not only as we were staying there, others, the land is theirs, but they were not using it as we use it, and we are still going to use it even in the future.
What did you lose?
We were moved from where the new mining pit is now on Wilgespruit. We were moved to the dam where no mining is happening. Now they want to move us off Wilgespruit again, to Wag-‘n-Bietjie or the farms they bought on the Botswana border. This is to secure the mining rights at Kruidfontein.
In the meantime, PPM has not paid the Wilgespruit rental money to the Community Trust. All the mining has now stopped since 2023. But PPM and C&L are persisting with the third new mining-right application for Kruidfontein. The Kruidfontein mining right application depends on the decline shaft starting at Wilgespruit. We say that we cannot be moved again because PPM has not complied with the settlement agreement.
Did they just give you only your damages, and how much were they?
It depends on what damage you get. I cannot guarantee that much money and so forth, but it depends on what you lost. We lost water; we had pipelines for Magalies; we lost that water; we lost so many things. Maybe someone has more than others; we do not know how much we got paid.
Six years after you were relocated to where you are now, you must be relocated somewhere else again. Do you know where that is?
No, they just want to remove us, but do not know where they will send us. The other day, when Connie was still alive, she came here and said to us guys, please, please, please, do not allow them to remove you here, if you agree to be removed, know that it is your problem; these people have not been given this portion, so please stay there.
If you have money, you can maybe build two rooms or one room with bricks, but we are still struggling to do that. I am still going to do what she advised me to do.
Now, in terms of this Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act (IPILRA), do you think that you are protected by it if you are to be removed again to another place that you do not even know?
I feel that we are protected under IPILRA, so we were so glad to hear yesterday that it could become a permanent law.
What support do you need from organisations like ours, AIDC, Bench Marks, LAMOSA, ARD, and other communities? What can you say to advise other communities that could be confronted by the challenges you are confronted with today?
I think that people can know that there are some people who can help us; the only thing is that we do not know who they are. Now, maybe they will open their eyes and everything, so we can get support from the institutions that are helping us now.
The Traditional Leadership and Khoisan Bill (TLKA Bill). Are you aware of it?
No, we are not aware of it until yesterday, as it was raised in the meeting.
So, you are not aware of it, and the other issue is that you do not know its implications for your court case or the judgment.
In the end, a position paper on the Implications of the TLKA Bill and on making it compliant with SPLUMA must be developed by the legal team for community awareness and to strengthen the Maledu Case. The demand for IPILRA to be made permanent must be written up by the legal team to assist communities in advancing their issues.
