My parents lost 3 farms during the Boer War that were reduced to ashes and all livestock confiscated or shot by British forces under their scorched earth policy. In terms of the new South African political setup and the official views on land ownership together with emotional claims that the land was "stolen" by settlers, what was the legitimacy of land ownership during the pre-boer war independence stage of the Free State. Is it a case of the British had a right to destroy settler farms anyway because their owneship was illegal? i.e. the settlers had no legitimate right to land in that part of the world as it belonged to people who had arrived there before them?

I guess the question is more one of morality and principle than the initiation of a legal enquiry.