Land tribunal orders fence removal
Mpho Mokwape | Monday June 23, 2014 11:17
The order, issued last Friday, should come as a sigh of relief for the over 70 households who were fenced in by the family and the church four weeks ago.
The Land Tribunal found the Matlapeng family’s action unlawful and in violation of a 2010 Court Order that instructed the family not to touch the land except the land board. Judge Gordon Lecoge ruled that actions of the Matlapengs and the church amounted to self-help or taking the law into own hands. The Tribunal ordered that the fence at Metlhabeng ward be removed within 30 days or the family would be fined P5,000 and the costs of removing the fence by the land board.
The court action follows The Monitor expose three weeks ago narrating how the church and the Matlapeng family had fenced in more than 70 families and more undeveloped plots, as well as blocking a road.
The land board then made an urgent application to the Land Tribunal Court citing contempt of court order by the family and the church.
Both parties have eight weeks to appeal to the High Court. The land board is not done with the matter though. The Board lawyers told The Monitor that they might consider taking the church to court after it emerged that it allocated itself land on which its structure now stands. The church had earlier told The Monitor that they got the land from the Matlapeng family, and not the land board.
The WCCC Tabernacle could be demolished as the Tlokweng Land Board moves to fight illegal land allocation to the foreign-led church where Tlokweng chief Rammonye Matlapeng, who claims traditional rights to the land, is also a church elder.
Following the land board court action, the church’s prophet, a Dr LT Justin vowed to curse The Monitor if the paper continued published stories about his church and land grabbing in Tlokweng.