80-year-old loses home in land row

MBABANE – An 80-year-old resident of Eticancweni claims people allegedly acting on royal kraal instructions demolished his structures to make way for land he had occupied for more than two decades.

Mazingela Ellion Mkhonto said he had lived on the land for 23 years and accused another resident of selling the piece of land he occupied, with the umphakatsi allegedly enforcing the arrangement.

Mkhonto said he acquired the land from his brother, who had previously occupied it.

“The land used to belong to my brother and he left it to me. I had to undergo the customary kukhonta ceremony and even paid a cow to gain full ownership of the land,” he said.

He said the royal kraal council initially tried to relocate him to an area he described as obscure and hilly, but he refused to move. Mkhonto said he believed his concerns had been understood and continued living on the land, where he had built two shacks. However, he said he was shocked when he returned from Nsingweni, his parental home, one day to find both structures demolished and his household belongings removed.

“I don’t know where they took my furniture to. I had beds and clothes in the houses,” he said.

appealed

Mkhonto said he had appealed to the King’s Liaison Council before the demolition, but the matter was not resolved after the other parties, including representatives of the royal kraal, failed to attend the hearing. He said he had since reported the matter to the King’s Advisory Council (Liqoqo), which had assured him it would be attended to. “I am currently waiting to be summoned by Liqoqo to have the matter adjudicated,” he said.

Elwandle Headman Dlamini confirmed that the matter was now before Liqoqo.

“Unfortunately, there is nothing I can say on the matter now because it is before Liqoqo,” he said, declining to comment further.

During a tour of the land, the Times of Eswatini observed building materials from the demolished structures folded and left in two piles. The materials included planks and corrugated iron sheets.

Neighbours also confirmed that men who identified themselves as acting on umphakatsi instructions demolished the structures and loaded the household furniture onto a truck.