Lebogang Seale’s book tracks a century of injustice in his family’s quest for land

With Heritage Day just behind us, the land question continues to be a contentious issue, owing to South Africa’s history of oppression. 

Former journalist Lebogang Seale’s One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My Family’s Quest to Reclaim Our Land traces his family’s history and their ongoing struggle to strengthen their restitution case.

The recently released book provides a penetrating examination of land reform and restitution in South Africa, tracing the legacies of apartheid into the post-apartheid era, offering both historical context and contemporary analysis. 

Covering more than a century of land dispossession, from the early 20th century to the current period, Seale’s work is divided into several sections, each addressing different facets of reform and restitution, including historical injustices, policy implementation, and the lived experiences of affected communities.

Seale sets the stage with the pernicious Natives Land, Bantu Authorities and the Group Areas Acts, detailing how these laws systematically disenfranchised black South Africans, stripping them of their land and resources. 

Essentially, the legislation, as renowned scholar and one of the ANC’s founders Sol Plaatje elucidated, was “intended to reduce Natives to serfs”.

This historical background is crucial for understanding the extent of dispossession and the deeply entrenched inequities that persist into the present day, including the Seale family’s push to reclaim their stolen heritage.

After the first democratic election in 1994, as Seale highlights, issues such as the slow pace of land redistribution, bureaucratic hurdles and issues related to the underutilisation of redistributed land have featured prominently. 

Figures from the government’s Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy show that a paltry 25% of farmland has been reclaimed in the past 30 years, the majority of which (7.55 million hectares) is lying in the state’s hands, with civilian beneficiaries being given 30-year leases on the 6.68 million hectares ceded to them. 

The author’s personal narratives illustrate the emotional and practical challenges faced by land claimants, highlighting the gap between policy intentions and real-world outcomes.

For instance, Seale recounts the experiences of families who have struggled to reclaim ancestral land, facing prolonged delays and inadequate compensation. These stories underscore the need for more effective and compassionate policy implementation, as well as the importance of considering the lived experiences of those impacted by land reform.

Pointing to personal struggles, he writes how, from around 2011, his family ditched the civil approach to their claim for a more radical and aggressive disposition. 

“This strategy, however, revealed information that sank our spirits. Some of our documents had gone missing. We were stunned,” Seale writes. “The officials claimed that the missing documents would not have any serious bearing on our claim … Clearly this was yet another attempt to placate us from putting even more pressure on them.”

He adds that landowner Montague Marinus (affectionately known as Kaspaas) had died in 2015, and it had been 10 years since the Commission for Land Restitution, through its Polokwane regional office, had accepted his family’s “valid” claims for restitution. 

“We had registered the claim in December 1998 under the name Seale Tribal Trust Land Claim, the earliest date that communities could lodge such claims in terms of section 25 of the Constitution,” writes Seale. 

“In 2024, at the time this book was published, it had been 25 years since we lodged the claim. Yet we still have nothing to show for it.”

A crucial aspect of his work is its emphasis on the importance of heritage in land ownership. For many black South Africans, land is not merely a resource but a profound part of their cultural and historical identity. 

As Plaatje put it, successive severe laws minimised “competition by denying blacks the right to purchase land and the opportunity to become shareholders on white-owned land”.

One of the key criticisms Seale offers is the disconnect between land reform policies and the realities on the ground. He argues that while the government’s objectives are sound, the execution has often been inadequate, resulting in frustration and disillusionment among beneficiaries. 

He calls for a more integrated approach that addresses the broader socio-economic challenges associated with land ownership, such as access to resources, skills development and support for sustainable agriculture.

One Hundred Years of Dispossession does more than just critique, it explores the broader implications for South Africa’s future, arguing that successful land reform can foster national unity, address historical grievances and contribute to sustainable development.

Seale brings in international examples of comparative land struggles which he believes have worked, such as the Treaty Settlement introduced by New Zealand, where the government negotiated settlements with Maori tribes, returning land and providing financial compensation, often accompanied by co-governance arrangements for natural resources.

However, Seale rails against the lack of will in Southern Africa to redress repressive policies of the past spawned by colonialism. 

“In their desire to defend ‘their’ rights, the white farmers sought to ignore the truth: that their claim to land is based on a dark history of conquest, when colonial settlers routinely looted the land of indigenous communities,” he contends. 

He adds that the history of land justice on the continent is “replete with stories of falsification, and even denial”.

“As such, we were not surprised when we learnt that farmers were opposing our claim. What troubles us most, however, is that it is our own people — those who profess to be our liberators — who keep betraying us … They are the ones exploiting us.”

It is a well-researched book that draws on Seale’s years as a journalist to provide a fact-based offering that strengthens his commentary on the failure of the government in assisting families such as his address past injustices — thereby restoring the hijacked heritage for which the dispossessed have longed.

One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My Family’s Quest to Reclaim Our Land is published by Jacana Media.