The Kalahari Bushmen’s landmark court case against the Botswana government will reach a crucial stage at the end of August as the lawyers present their final arguments to the court. A Bushman (San) spokesman from First People of the Kalahari said Wednesday, "We are very happy that at long last the end of our court case is in sight. While it has been going on more than twenty of the original applicants have died in the relocation camps. We hope justice will come soon before more of us die."

The last of the evidence in the case was heard in May. The lawyers are due to present their final arguments in the week beginning 28 August at Gaborone, and a judgement should be made soon after that. At least 10 percent of the original 243 applicants have died in government resettlement camps since the case was filed. Now 135 more Bushmen have asked to be added to the original list of 243 applicants this year.
The Bushmen are fighting for their right to return to their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and to hunt and gather freely. They first filed the case in April 2002, following the evictions in February that year, but it was thrown out on a technicality. The Bushmen appealed and won the right to have the case heard, and it began in July 2004 in Botswana’s High Court. It has since faced long delays. The case has been the longest and most expensive in Botswana’s legal history, despite being brought by the country’s poorest inhabitants.

RSA get stricter on land reform process

South Africa will expropriate white-owned farms if negotiations linger or end in deadlock and this has speeded up the process. More farmers agree to the price offered by the government, even only at the last minute. "Farmers have become more supportive because we are cracking the whip," the chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya was quoted by media reports. According to him a decision to issue expropriation notices to farmers if negotiations on the price or title deeds exceeded six months had helped speed up the land reform programme. The South African government aims to change nearly a third of white-owned land to new black farmers by 2014 to redress the injustices of apartheid.

"Farmers now give a good response in Mpumalanga, where 70 farms in the Tevubu area were identified for expropriation", the official said. "Forty of them agreed to our price at the last minute." Gwanya said that 90 farmers out of 200 in the Limpopo province had done a last minute about-turn or face expropriation notices. In February, a six-month deadline was imposed on new land claims cases or if talks resulted in an impasse. South Africa’s new Lands Minister Lulu Xingwana was allegedly "fed up" with the slow pace of the land reform. "The minister has given us instructions that once we have agreed on the valuation made by an independent valuer and offer it to the land owner, we must not take more than six months to conclude the deal," he said. "If we cannot reach agreement in six months, we must start the expropriation process," which could take up to another six months, he said. There are 6,969 rural land claims, which must settled before the December 2008 deadline. Black ownership of land has increased from 13 percent at the end of apartheid rule in 1994 to 16 percent, but falls short of targets set by the Pretoria government.