Aspirations grounded as land reform plans erode
Inter-departmental co-operation isn’t working and funds are scarce
TO ENSURE transformation and access to economic opportunity, South Africans are alive to the fact that a just and efficient land claims process is a critical first step. Decades of dispossession and displacement by the apartheid government, through its discriminatory laws, saw vast communities removed from land they had lived on for generations.
It is not enough for the ANC government to keep making reference to the fact that it has taken steps to set up structures and systems to reverse these unequal land ownership patterns. We are aware of the role and responsibilities of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights. What is missing in the ANC government’s narrative is why the land reform and restitution process has been moving at a snail’s pace.
In certain instances, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights are required to work with other government departments, such as the Department of Public Works (DPW), to navigate cases where some of the land identified for reclamation by claimants is owned by these departments.
Available evidence, however, indicates the ANC is reluctant to acknowledge that inter-departmental co-operation on land claims resolution is not working. Poor co-operation between government departments has created impediments that has seen land claim beneficiaries wait for years to receive their claims or financial compensation.
In one case brought to the attention of the DA, the Adriaanse family in the Western Cape lodged a claim in 1998 for 96 hectares of land from which they were forcefully removed by the apartheid government in 1969. In 2013, the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights awarded them the claim.
But because the claim was in an area earmarked for the extension of the Cape Town International Airport, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform recommended the claimant be paid out to the value of the property or be awarded alternative state land.
The claimants rejected an offer of R2.65 million and opted for alternative state land, as they considered their original claim was worth much more than they were being offered. In 2016, 18 years after they lodged their claim, the DPW informed them that the department lacked the resources to complete the transaction.
The Adriaanse case is of one of many which partly explain why the land restitution process, as spearheaded by the ANC, has been slow and only a few cases have been satisfactorily settled to date. It’s unacceptable as it militates against efforts aimed at redress and access to economic opportunity.
Often, the failure by government departments to co-operate and settle land claims brought by the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights can be attributed to the mismanagement and maladministration within these departments.
In 2016, the auditor-general indicated that mismanagement of funds by the Property Management Trading Entity, which falls under the Department of Public Works and manages the department’s immoveable assets including land, continues to impede its ability to function effectively.
The 2016/17 auditor-general’s findings concluded that the Property Management Trading Entity’s asset liabilities exceeded R8.8 billion over and above the R3.7 billion the department had spent on irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. These figures are indicative of a culture of impunity in the ANC government where poor internal financial control measures, lacklustre revenue and expenditure management and general maladministration are the order of the day.
This begs the question: how can the ANC government expect to expedite the land claims process if national departments under its management have financial books that are always in the red?
The DA strongly condemns the violation of land claimants’ rights due to gross mismanagement and maladministration of state resources by government departments.
We cannot continue to have a situation where families are left in limbo because the ANC government is failing to return land that belongs to them or to offer fair compensation for an asset that belongs to them.
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform must take immediate steps to come up with a policy framework for inter-departmental co-operation to ensure land claims are processed timeously and effectively. It must ensure the red tape that often impedes the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights when it tries to settle claims is minimised.
Removing glaring inequalities in society requires boldness in confronting the land question.
It must not be business as usual as we work to find urgent solutions to this urgent issue.
As one of the MPs on the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform, I commit to ensuring that inter-departmental lethargy over land claims is addressed urgently.