Forest Hill 9-KO acquired without consent

This week Court of Appeal (CoA) upheld last year’s High Court’s decision to grant Bamalete ownership of their piece of land. “Based on the evidence on record, the farm was not purchased from the tribe but it was acquired by the Land Board through an Act of Parliament without the consent of the tribe.

That in itself gave rise to compulsory acquisition,” Judge President Tebogo Tau said when delivering the judgement on Tuesday. She said the High Court was correct in holding that the legislative scheme was unconstitutional for permitting the compulsory acquisition of the tribe’s farm in violation of the protections of the right to property enshrined under Section 8 of the Constitution.