- The Seshego Regional Court has denied an application to withdraw a case against 11 people accused of illegally selling a privately owned farm.
- The group allegedly duped unsuspecting people into buying residential areas on the private land outside Polokwane.
- The NPA still has to consider their representations over ownership of the land.
A sudden application for the withdrawal of a case against 11 people facing fraud charges for allegedly illegally selling a privately owned farm was denied in the Seshego Regional Court, sitting at the Polokwane High Court in Limpopo, on Friday.
The group, including senior members of the Mojapelo tribal authority, are alleged to have duped unsuspecting members of the public into buying residential sites on privately owned Portion 41 of Kalkfontein in Dalmada outside Polokwane.
They were arrested in August last year and charged with fraud.
At their last appearance, the defence requested a postponement for time to make representations to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) over the ownership of the land.
However, Magistrate Christina van der Walt rejected the application, and extended the time for the NPA to consider the representations.
The case was postponed to 4 June 2021.
The case dates back to 1996 when six clans, known as Maboi 6, jointly lodged a land claim on the entire farm of Kalkfontein. The land claim was never settled because of the fierce disputes among the clans.
In 2014, the Mojapelo clan claimed that Portion 41 of the Kalkfontein farm was its own and started to demarcate sites for sale to members of the public.
The owner of the land, Blue Dot (Pty) Ltd subsequently approached the court and the occupiers were twice declared to be illegal and ordered to vacate the land.
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