The land where Hilton College, the country’s most prestigious boarding school for boys, is located has again been subject to a land claim by the Nxamalala clan in KwaZulu-Natal, who say they were forcibly removed from the site more than a century ago.
The school, situated in the KZN Midlands, is the most expensive boarding facility in the country with parents paying R430,000 in school fees per year.
The Nxamalalas, whose most prominent member is former president Jacob Zuma, the leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, first lodged their claim in 1998 in the KwaZulu-Natal Land Claims Court.
The Nxamalala clan said they were forcibly removed more than 100 years ago from the land currently occupied by Hilton College as part of the Native Land Act of 1913.
In 2005, the KZN land claims commissioner rejected the claim lodged by Inkosi Sikholwa Zuma.
The land claim was rejected after the KZN commissioner deemed it “frivolous and vexatious”, concluding the Inkosi Zuma was claiming tribal jurisdiction instead of racial removal.
However, the Land Court in Randburg recently overturned this ruling by setting it aside, opening the doors to the Nxamalala clan’s claim that the land is rightfully theirs.
In the ruling, Judge Muzikawakhelwana Thomas Ncube said the report or investigation used to reject the claim was irrational and could not be allowed to stand.
He pointed out self-contradictory statements and described the 2005 ruling as irrational.
“An irrational decision is the decision which is shockingly bad and defies logic to the extent that no sensible person who had applied his/her mind correctly to the question to be decided could have arrived at that decision. To test the reasonableness of the decision or conduct, the court must ask itself whether an ordinary person in the same circumstances would have had the same belief or acted in the same way,” read the ruling.
“In this case, the RLCC (the Regional Land Claims Commissioner in KwaZulu-Natal) took a decision based on a poor, contradictory and senseless validation report…” read Ncube’s ruling.
The Land Court remitted the matter to the KZN RLCC for a reconsideration based on reports by the JL Dube Institute and a report compiled by Babhekile Mpisane dated 15 January 2016.
The JL Dube Institute recommended that authorities accept the validity of the claim.
Inkosi Simphiwe Zuma of the Nxamalala clan confirmed that their claim includes the land where Hilton College is situated.
He said the site where the college is standing was the royal residence of his great-grandfather, Inkosi Lugaju Zuma.
However, he allayed fears that if the claim is successful, the college will be moved.
“We are building the nation now, so we have no intention to dislocate anyone, although we were forcibly removed. Once the matter is settled and is in our favour, we will sit down with the affected parties and discuss the way forward on how the Nxamalalas will benefit from their ancestral land. Leasing the land for commercial use will be considered,” said Inkosi Simphiwe Zuma.
The Hilton College campus is 150 hectares, but has a wider 1,600-hectare school property, 650 hectares of which are a proclaimed nature reserve bordered by the Umgeni River and home to warthog, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and six species of buck.
Hilton College headmaster George Harris said: “Following initial investigations conducted into this matter and having canvassed the matter with our attorneys…, it would appear from a reading of the reported judgment pertaining to the matter that the farms cited therein, do not correlate with the description of The Hiltonian Society’s land in and around Hilton College and neither does it pertain to the land which the Society acquired in Howick some years back for purposes of offering valley residents relocation.”
Harris said that although Hilton College is mentioned in the judgment, most likely as a geographical indicator, the portions of the farms that are referenced in the judgment seem to be situated in and around Howick and in the Lions River District and do not belong to the Society.
He added that The Hiltonian Society will continue to investigate the matter to ascertain whether there is any veracity in the claims reported and will update the community further as and when necessary.