Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) |13 July 2021
Mr Grandcourt
Complainant claims back father’s acquired land and business
Robert Grandcourt was the only person in live session, among the three complainants and one witness, who appeared before the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) yesterday.
In setting out his complaint in Case 0437 of the commission’s 175th hearing session in the afternoon, Robert Grandcourt said his father, Zafet Grandcourt, had his land and petrol business at Grand Anse Praslin unfairly taken away from him during the one party state. He said he would like to see the land and a petrol station business, now being run by the Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec), return to members of the family.
Mr Grancourt said his father’s nightmares started not long after the coup d’etat of June 5, 1977 when he was informed on July 22, 1980, that his land and petrol station has been acquired by the government.
He stated that rather than being compensated, his father had asked for him to be given another piece of land as he had wanted in the first place to leave the prime property in the hands of his six children. He noted that his father’s demand was unfortunately turned down.
He said that on April 10, 1986, his father was offered R104,200 as compensation payable in four instalments and he in turn refused the offer as he had asked to be given another piece of land in exchange.
He added that as it was not possible at that time for anybody to go against a government decision, his father had no choice but to take the compensation that was offered to him.
“My father never wanted to sell his land and business,” Mr Grandcourt said, noting that the Grandcourt family and heirs should be the rightful owner of the piece of land and the petrol station which had since then been leased to Seypec.
Speaking about his political life, Mr Grandcourt said that during the many years he was working in Belgium, he acted as an opposition activist, mainly for the Seychelles National Party (SNP).
He further said that he had on many occasions addressed the European Parliament on the political situation under the previous ruling party, in a bid to bring change in the country.
Mr Grandcourt said that he sympathised with all those who had suffered from atrocities, among other forms of victimisation, under the previous ruling party.
He stated that the former ruling party, apart from victimising people in different forms, also mismanaged the country’s funds which resulted in making only those with close connection to become millionaires and billionaires.
“If we haven’t had the coup d’etat, when you consider all the money that have been wasted on very big projects, all the human resources that have been wasted, we would have been one of the richest countries per capita in the world,” Mr Grandcourt said, noting that by looking around us, only a few people have accumulated wealth almost five times our national reserves.
He said that the coup had brought along with it winners and losers and a way must be found to recover the country’s lost money, including from the ‘winners’, to compensate the ‘losers’.
Patrick Joubert