South Africa land

Ed and Sally Meyer left Cape Town to retire in the countryside seven years ago, settling on a 3,500-acre ranch that had been in Ed’s family since 1916. They are locked in a battle over the land with Andries Mahlungu, a gardener who says the farmland belonged to his ancestors. After the fall of apartheid, the government formed the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights to adjudicate land claims; so far it has settled about 75,000 of 80,000 claims, returning hundreds of thousands of acres to blacks and paying white farmers compensation at market rates that have totaled more than $2 billion.

Scott Kraft, Los Angeles Times / November 29, 2008

Ed and Sally Meyer left Cape Town to retire in the countryside seven years ago, settling on a 3,500-acre ranch that had been in Ed’s family since 1916. They are locked in a battle over the land with Andries Mahlungu, a gardener who says the farmland belonged to his ancestors. After the fall of apartheid, the government formed the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights to adjudicate land claims; so far it has settled about 75,000 of 80,000 claims, returning hundreds of thousands of acres to blacks and paying white farmers compensation at market rates that have totaled more than $2 billion.

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