Afrikaner separatist group “Oranjevrijstaat Boervolk” has laid claim to large parts of South Africa, including KwaZulu-Natal, claiming their land was dispossessed by Britain in the 1840s, in a matter exposing the fault lines of the country’s colonial past. Emboldened by US President Donald Trump’sGreenlandclaim, the Boervolk is relying on UN Resolution 1514 regarding the abolition of colonialism as a legitimate form of international state structure, to claim ownership of about 9-million hectares of land. In a Government Gazette, published on Friday last week, the Boervolk say Britain was, and the democratic state is, in illegal possession of their land and territory, being KwaZulu-Natal and northern parts of the Eastern Cape.
“Take further notice that Britain did not just colonise the region, but they also expropriated the private farms of the Boer people in the Eastern region without compensation, for which restitution of land and title deeds, lost income and amenities, and hardship which we had to endure must now also be returned and reimbursed to the burghers of the Boervolk,” the Government Gazette reads. The notice shows the claim is dated January 23, a day after the Zulu nation commemorated the 147thanniversary of the Battle of Isandlwana — the second major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Zulu king Misuzulu kaZwelithini last month used the commemoration to call for KwaZulu-Natal to be renamed, saying the province should be known simply as KwaZulu.
He argued that before colonisation, the area was known as KwaZulu and formed part of the Zulu kingdom, and that colonisers later imposed the name Natal. The Boervolk in its notice references the speech delivered by US President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum last month, in which he doubled down on his demand for control of Greenland, to augment the basis of its claim. Under the Boervolk blueprint, it will use the land to establish the Republic of Natalia, which was established by the Boers in 1839 before being annexed by the British in 1843. Boervolk spokesperson Wim Rossouw told Business Day that the land was bought from Zulu kings Dingaan and Mpanda before Britain colonised the territory in 1843.
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