Millions used to buy land recouped

MPs told of land restitution savings by Office of Valuer-General

LAND reform is expected to be high on the agenda of the ANC policy conference when it gets under way in Nasrec, Soweto tomorrow. The policy conference comes as Parliament grapples with the slow pace of land restitution and redistribution. In the latest figures before Parliament the Land Claims Commission said yesterday that government has managed to claw back millions it used to pay in purchasing land.

Chief Land Claims Commissioner Nomfundo Gobodo told MPs the setting up of the Office of the Valuer-General the government has saved the government millions of rand. She

said since the office was set up in 2014 they no longer got involved in the valuation of land to be purchased by government for the land reform programme.

Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti told Parliament this month that the state had saved R84 million. This is higher than the figure of R50m announced by Nkwinti earlier in the year.

“The government wants to put more millions in the fiscus for more projects. This was because the government no longer buys land on market-related prices, but on the valuation by the valuer-general.”

The Office of the Valuer-General was set up after the ANC adopted a resolution at its Mangaung conference in 2012 for for fair and equitable compensation.

Gobodo said since the office was