Gov’t, Balete land war heats up again

The pair is having yet another round at the courts as the State wants the highest court to decide once and for all to whom the contested farmland belongs. In May last year, Kgosi Mosadi Seboko led Balete to victory when the High Court declared the farmland belonged to the tribe while government, on one hand, does not think so.

The government has for a long time been engaged in a bitter war with the tribe over the farmland known as Hill 9-KO. It was an unending war when it informed the tribe that it was time for the cessation of the tribe’s ownership of the farms by cancelling its Title Deed. In their recently filed court papers at the Court of Appeal (CoA), the government still insists the farm belongs to Malete Land Board, therefore, being a government property. Government says the trial court was wrong in finding that the land in terms of the Deed of Transfer was not included in the Bamalete Tribal Territory. “The High Court was wrong to decide that the farmland was not included in the Bamalete territory therefore the Land Board cannot claim ownership and that it solely belongs to the tribe,” the State argued.