Give back stolen land, says State

The government wants to take back state and private land that’s in the “hands of thieves” or those who got it illegitimately, when it reopens the land claims process after almost 14 years.

The new process, which is expected to create tension in certain communities, follows the release of the draft Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill which was published for public comment last month and sets the land claims deadline as December 31, 2018.

The previous land claims process was for those who were dispossessed of a land right after June 13, 1913 as a result of racist laws at the time.

The new law will not only allow those who missed the first deadline to put in claims, but will also open the door to claims from those dispossessed before 1913, namely the Khoisan communities.

Briefing the media yesterday, rural development and land reform portfolio committee chairman Stone Sizani said a key feature in the new process would be tracing all those who got land illegally during the apartheid era.

“The land management commission that is in the drawing room now, when it is established, one of the first things it will do is to make a call, like I am making now, that those people who have stolen land in their possession must bring it back into the hands of the state. We know there are people who have stolen land in their possession. This will be uncovered,” said Sizani.

The “stealing” of land was not like taking it away and hiding it “like stolen goods”.

“But people falsify documents and have collaborators. There are agencies investigating this matter. And we refer some of the information given to us to them to investigate. The investigation has been going on for some time,” he said.

Sizani said Section 25 of the Constitution states that everybody’s got a right to hold on to his property, “but if it is stolen it is not yours”.

“Everybody who is found with stolen goods is sent to jail. So in this context we make this call,” said Sizani.

The government would be looking into cases where certain people got 99-year leases for less than a rand.

He also noted there were a number of outstanding land claims from the previous process.

“When the floodgates open for the new claims you will have facilities you didn’t have in the past given the fact that we now have a clearer understanding of how the communities can claim,” said Sizani.

The previous land claim process resulted in fewer than 80 000 claims, but the proposed extension could expand the process to include up to 7.5 million dispossessions.

Parliament is to set up an ad hoc committee to deal with the new process that will consist of members from the portfolio committees on land reform and rural development, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, arts and culture, public works, human settlements and co-operative governance and traditional affairs.

The portfolio committees will today hold a workshop to discuss ways and means to deal with the new process.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries portfolio committee chairman Lulu Johnson said on June 19, it would be exactly 100 years since Parliament under the Union of South Africa passed the Natives Land Act, No 27 of 1913.

Quoting two apartheid native affairs commissioners A W Roberts and P van Niekerk, arts and culture portfolio committee chairwoman Thandi Sunduza said: “Land means everything to the native people. It is the basis of their national life.”

She added the government wouldn’t be “apologetic” about the process of claiming back land “that is our heritage”.

DA spokesman on rural development and land reform Mpowele Swathe welcomed the establishment of the ad hoc committee. - Cape Times

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