By Chris Albertyn
Mounting pressure has prompted the South African defence ministry to move quickly in addressing a small rural community's grievances concerning land which had been so badly polluted by military activities development plans could not proceed.
The community of Riemvasmaak, 800 kilometres north of Cape Town, was forcibly removed from their land in the early 1970s to make way for a military testing site. The architects of apartheid decided that the arid semi-desert land occupied by these "non-white" people was ideal for military testing. The entire community was forcibly removed and settled into two separate sites more than one thousand kilometres apart, in Namibia and the Ciskei.
The community was given their land back soon after the election of the new government and members of the community are due to return in August. However, plans for the re-establishment of the community were being hampered by unexploded bombs and landmines as well as other pollution from military activities.
Repeated requests by community representatives for a meeting with defence minister Joe Modise seemed to fall on deaf ears, until the community went public with their complaints and called on supporters to contact the minister to demand action.
On July 20, after meeting with senior generals, deputy minister of defence Ronnie Kasrils agreed to schedule a top-level meeting with community representatives and arranged an aeroplane inspection of the area on July 20.
"We were perhaps a little slow off the mark," Kasrils admitted. "But it does seem as if there has been some misunderstanding. We were always going to put this situation right, now we are really moving."
Kasrils said the ministry of defence and the South African National Defence Force had intended to help in the community's development plans by offering assistance such as aerial surveys to determine where best to establish agricultural lands.
"The whole area will be cleared of bombs and pollution by October when minister Modise will personally hand the land back to these people," said Kasrils.
"We are very happy that the ministry has moved so quickly," said Riemvasmaak community spokesperson Freddie Bosman. "Thanks to all those people and organisations for their solidarity and support during our long struggle to get our land restored."
[Environmental Justice Networking Forum of South Africa. The EJNF can be contacted by writing to PO Box 100029, Scottsville, 3209, South Africa.]