THE CORNER PEOPLE OF LADY SELBORNE

272pp., 4to., illus., paperback, Pretoria, 2009

The area known as Lady Selborne, situated in the suburb now called Suiderberg to the west of Pretoria, was established in 1905 and was one of few areas where black Africans could own land. In the mid-1960s, under the apartheid government's Group Areas Act, residents of Lady Selborne were forcefully removed. Many were resettled in the suburb of Ga-Rankuwa, which formed part of the Bophuthatswana homeland.

Retired journalist and attorney John Seakalala Mojapelo grew up in Lady Selborne. His family were forcefully removed to the township of Mamelodi. He was General Secretary of the organisation of ex-Lady Selborne residents who re-claimed their land through the Land Restitution Act process and became the first resident of the New Lady Selborne.