Makuleke community

node · earth · Pafuri, northern Kruger

A community of roughly 1,500 people at the time of removal, forcibly relocated in 1969 by the apartheid government from the Pafuri area between the Luvuvhu and Limpopo rivers, which was then incorporated into Kruger National Park. The community lodged a restitution claim in 1995 under South Africa's post-apartheid land restitution law and reached a settlement in 1998 under which roughly 25,000 hectares of title were restored on condition that the land remain under conservation use and stay within Kruger, with the community holding commercial rights. The Makuleke settlement is the most cited African case of a park boundary being reopened after the fact, and also the most cited case of how narrow such a settlement can be — title returned without the right to return and live there.