Tears flowed in Parliament when 81-year-old Juanita Solomon shared her heart-wrenching story of her nearly 30-year fight to get back the land in Retreat owned by her parents taken during apartheid.
Last week, the former nurse accompanied by her grandson Alfonso Solomon, showed documents proving their family’s ownership of the land.
Her father, Isaac Solomon, bought the land when she was three weeks old, and farmed with cattle and vegetables.
But when the Group Areas Act came into being in the 1960s, the family of six were removed from their 16 plots which spanned 6.5 acres along 11th Avenue and Leytonstone Road in Retreat.
The land was eventually sold by the apartheid government.
In 2015, then-mayor Patricia de Lille handed the land back to Juanita, only to have it snatched away the very next day due to administrative bungles.
Now, 29 years after placing a claim with the Regional Land Claims Commission, Juanita has taken her plight to the corridors of Parliament, where her voice was finally heard.
The brave old lady addressed the new portfolio committee on land reform and rural development, saying: “I was born and bred on the land. My father had a farm in Retreat and he made out a will that we must inherit.
“When the Group Areas Act took over, we were dispersed off the farm.”
She said after her parents passed on, she appointed an attorney to get the land back.
The ouma explains: “In 2015, we went to Patricia de Lille... and before the public in a big marquee it was said she was handing the property over to us... and the very next day it was cancelled.”
Juanita said she became homeless after a storm damaged her council-owned home.
She adds: “This is our property and I had siblings, but everything was negative and each time, we were told to wait and hang on.
“It became really bitter until now with this storm, where I found myself homeless, where my niece gave me assistance.”
A tearful Alfonso fears his ouma may never see the farm restored to their family, even after her decades-long battle.
He says: “We have been given the runaround by so many ministers and mayors and we have been pushed from one department to others, media campaigns.”
Portfolio committee chairperson Mangaqa Albert Mncwango has vowed to investigate.
He says: “We do want to follow up on this matter with the chief land claims commissioner to find out exactly what happened. And I ask, if there is any documentation in your possession [that you] hand it over.”