SA Tribe Wins Diamond Land Battle

The South African Constitutional Court has brought yesterday to an end a five-year court battle between a tribe that was forced off its diamond rich land in the early twentieth century and the South African Government, possibly awarding it with hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.

The Nama tribe was forced off its land in the 1920s when diamonds were found in the Northern Cape region where it lived. Since then the now 2,000 tribesmen lived in poverty, detached of the riches of their land.

The court said in its decision that “We are of the view that the real character of the title that the Richtersveld Community possessed in the subject land was a right of communal ownership under indigenous law”.

While the judgment did not set the exact sum of compensation the tribe is entitled to, it did hand it the ownership of the Alexkor mine that sits on the land, which currently owned by the Government.