{"id":815102,"date":"2025-03-04T08:10:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T06:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=815102"},"modified":"2025-03-04T08:10:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T06:10:31","slug":"top-south-african-private-school-could-lose-its-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/815102\/top-south-african-private-school-could-lose-its-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Top South African private school could lose its land"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hilton College, one of South Africa\u2019s most respected and exclusive private schools, could lose its land following a land claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilton College was founded in 1872 by magistrate Gould Lucas and teacher and cleric William Newnham as a Christian boys’ school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucas worked as a magistrate in Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal, where he assisted Newnham in founding a school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, after he purchased a tract of mist-belt grassland above Pietermaritzburg, the pair created Hilton College at its current location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stretch of land Lucas bought, which became Hilton College\u2019s grounds, was a farm called Ongegund, established by pioneering Voortrekkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1849, Johanna Grobbelaar, widow of the original owner, sold Ongegund to a young Englishman, Joseph Henderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, in 1857, Henderson and his wife renamed the farm Hilton, after Hilton Hall in Staffordshire, England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1871, Lucas purchased a part of the Hilton farm from the Hendersons on which Hilton College could be founded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilton College was officially opened on 29 January 1872. The first 50 pupils were housed in dormitories built near the stables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original farmhouse was enlarged to serve as the main school building. At first, the school was little more than two thatched bungalows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a double-storey block was built, with the upper storey dubbed \u2018The Lords\u2019 and the lower \u2018The Commons\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this modest nucleus, Hilton grew, with buildings being constructed, playing fields levelled and avenues planted. Initially, the school was leased from Lucas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newnham\u2019s successor as Hilton\u2019s headmaster, Henry Vaughan Ellis, bought the school grounds. In 1903, they passed into the hands of the old boys, where they remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last 153 years, Hilton College has become a world-class school offering exceptional education to its students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school produced numerous exceptional sportsmen, justices, business leaders, politicians, and generals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well-known Hilton alumni include Springboks Bobby Skinstad and Gary Teichmann, Microsoft executive Paul Maritz, and politician Tim Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land claim against Hilton College<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Hilton College grounds are subject to a land claim by a group that claims it was forcefully removed from the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The land claim is over two decades old. However, in 2005, Inkosi Sikholwa Zuma’s land claim was rejected after the regional commissioner deemed it frivolous and vexatious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 21 February 2025, the Land Court of South Africa judge M.T. Ncube set aside a 2005 decision by the KwaZulu-Natal regional land claims commissioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe decision was irrational and cannot stand. An administrative decision must be rational,\u201d Ncube ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the Regional Land Claims Commissioner (RLCC) made a decision based on a poor, contradictory and senseless validation report prepared by Mdunjana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOther officials and the RLCC herself simply rubber-stamped the report without actually checking it for correctness,\u201d he ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHad they properly applied their minds to the validation report, they would have discovered that the report was self-contradictory and did not make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the ruling was absurd as Inkosi Sikholwa Zuma\u2019s claim was based on racial removals and not tribal jurisdiction, which was the reason for the dismissal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter has now been given to the KwaZulu-Natal regional land claims commissioner for reconsideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It urged the commissioner to use the reports by the JL Dube Institute and the report compiled by Babhekile Mpisana dated 15 January 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JL Dube Institute of the University of Kwazulu-Natal recommended that the RLCC accept the Nxamalala claim as valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RLCC accepted the claim and published it in the Government Gazette dated 18 March 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilton College photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hilton College, one of South Africa\u2019s most respected and exclusive private schools, can lose its land following a land claim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":815117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[21904,21903,9381,21902,21901],"class_list":["post-815102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-henry-vaughan-ellis","tag-hilton","tag-hilton-college","tag-johanna-grobbelaar","tag-joseph-henderson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815123,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815102\/revisions\/815123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}