Tight budget derails land restitution

In a major setback for land restitution, the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights has reduced its targets, citing budget constraints, having failed to settle over 5 000 claims.

This was contained in a parliamentary response by Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development Mzwanele Nyhontso to questions by ANC MP Cameron Dugmore.

Regarding claims lodged by claimants in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, Act 22 of 1994, before 1998 in each province, Dugmore wanted to know the total number of claims timeously lodged and the claims settled.

The act was enacted to restore land rights to individuals and communities dispossessed due to past racially discriminatory laws and practices. This act also established the Land Claims Court (now the Land Court) and created the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights to oversee the restitution process.

Nyhontso on Monday led the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Restitution of Land Rights Act at the Freedom Park Heritage Site in Pretoria, under the theme “Dignity Restored through the Land Restitution Act”.

His response to Dugmore showed that the total number of lodged land claims across all provinces was 79 696.

The Eastern Cape recorded the highest number of cases at 16 716, closely followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 16 394, and the Western Cape with 16 099.

Gauteng reported 13 162 cases, while Limpopo recorded 3 489, Mpumalanga 3 400, North West 3 902, and Northern Cape 3852. The Free State reported 2 682 land claims. Nyhontso noted that 56 040 land claims had been settled with compensation and 8 314 claimants saw their land returned.

However, there were still 5755 claims that were yet to be settled.

“There are various challenges such as conflict among the beneficiaries, landowners challenging the validity of the claims and land invasions which caused the delays in the settlement of claims.

“Due to the declining budget, the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights reduced its APP (annual performance plan) targets. Cognisant of the increased value of settlements and the declining budget, the Commission has aligned the settlement and finalisation targets with the allocated budget.

There is a need for increased budget and human resources capacity in order for the Commission to accelerate the fast-tracking of land claims,” he said.

A University of Pretoria academic and film-maker who has done extensive work on apartheid forced removals, Professor Siona O’Connell, said while the anniversary of the act was significant, far too many families continued to pay the price of race-based displacement.

“This anniversary is significant for many reasons. Inasmuch as the restitution of land was such an important step of recognition by the new democratic government, I think that 30 years later that recognition has waned. Lack of political will, decreasing budgets and the passing of time means that for far too many families who continue to pay the inter-generational costs of race-based displacement, redress and justice is out of reach.

“I don’t believe that our county can emerge as a healthy one without a continued commitment to restitution and for those of us committed to this work, today is a day of celebration as well as a call to continue the work hoped for in this important act,” she said.

Human rights activist Tauriq Jenkins said that land restitution was central to the aspirations of transformation and healing in South Africa.

“The issue of land still today is the most important question that we are faced with. It is a question that remains at large when it comes to the dispossession of land from indigenous communities since the first colonial conquest. The failure to address land and restitution is something that is a sorrowful litmus test in as far as the extent to which we are actually engaging in critical questions of equality and dignity. Because when the majority of a country does not own its own land, what does that say about the sovereignty of this country? Are we addressing apartheid spatial planning by just putting in shopping malls? By doing this economic infrastructural development all over, but the land itself has not been returned.

“After 30 years, the downscaling of the importance of returning land is contradictory to the fundamental aspiration that belies our Constitution and also that belies our Freedom Charter,“ said Jenkins.

Cape Times