Land claims target still possible
Alan Finlay
8 December 2004
Well over 800 000 hectares of land has been handed back to claimants through the government's land restitution and redistribution programme. And the Department of Land Affairs is confident that the challenges it faces in meeting its 2005 deadline can be overcome.
Chief among these challenges are a budget shortfall and a significant lack in staff capacity.
The land restitution programme aims to restore land rights lost as a result of apartheid's discriminatory laws, while the redistribution programme aims to provide the previously disadvantaged and the poor with access to land for residential and productive purposes.
A presidential target of settling all outstanding claims by 2005 has been set.
In a presentation at the 2004 budget hearings for the portfolio committee on agriculture and land affairs, the department said that 48 825 restitution claims involving 122 292 households were settled between 1995 and March 2004, with 662
307 people benefiting from the programme.
The total amount awarded so far is over R3.3-billion.
Chief Land Claims Commissioner Tozi Gwanya told the committee, however, that the commission faces several problems. These include difficulties in processing rural claims, lack of documentation, exorbitant land prices, opposition to the restitution programme, and budgetary challenges.
Gwanya said it takes around two years to finalise a typical rural claim. Most of the land in SA's former "homeland" areas is unregistered and unsurveyed, which makes deeds and archival research difficult.
Gwanya said there were delays in producing identity documents, birth and death certificates and other evidence to support claims. Forced removals during the apartheid era meant that claimants often lived far apart, making it difficult to get them together for community resolutions.
The sharp rise in land prices had also distorted the value of the land market, Gwanya said.
This particularly affected commercial agricultural farms, game farms, golf estates and forestry land. Foreigners buying land in South Africa were putting additional pressure on property prices, he added.
Gwanya pointed out that claimants often do not want any land other than the specific land belonging to their forefathers. At the same time, some current landowners were opposed to restitution, and dragged out the negotiation process.
While the restitution budget for 2004/5 had been increased to R939-million, a further R200-million was needed to enable beneficiaries to make optimal use of the restored land, Gwanya said. This financial support is in line with the Restitution Act.
Gwanya also said the commission needed another 200 staff members in order to meet the 2005 target.
Of the nine provinces, the Eastern Cape had the highest number of claims settled by March 2004 (12 973). It was follwed by KwaZulu-Natal, with 10 427 claims settled, and Gauteng, where 9
312 claims have been settled. The least number of claims have been settled in Limpopo (1 214).
Gwanya said although there were challenges in meeting the 2005 targets, these could be overcome through private sector support of the process, a bigger budget, and more staff.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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