Only 850 land claims settled last year

THE Commission on Restitution of Land Rights has settled only 850 land claims worth R2.1 billion between April 2017 and March 2018.

The figure saw 12 231 households and 58 979 beneficiaries benefit from the restitution programme.

“The settlements also approved 63 753.8563 hectares for restoration to claimants at a cost of R664 million and the financial compensation approved amounts worth R1.5bn,” according to the commission’s annual report.

The report, tabled in Parliament before June 1, said 865 claims were finalised and 1 201 others researched.

Limpopo led the pack with 289 settled land claims, followed by Western Cape at 234, KwaZulu-Natal 159, Eastern Cape 65 and North West 48. Mpumalanga settled 35 land claims, Gauteng 18 and Northern Cape with the lowest of only two claims and Free State zero.

Rural Development and Land Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the number of settled claims as of March 2018 has now put the total figure since 1994 to 80 664.

Nkoana-Mashabane said 2.1 million people have benefited from the land transferred through the restitution programme. “More than 163 000 households which have received land are female-headed.

One of the most notable claims settled during the reporting period is the 1 500 strong Double Drift community, which has turned its 1 300ha of land into a nature reserve and will soon be piloting a game farming project.” The minister said levels of inequality and poverty remained stubbornly high.

“The recent audit into private land ownership has confirmed that stark disparities in land ownership along racial lines persist with the black South AFricans owning only 4% of land.”

Chief land claims commissioner Nomfundo Ntloko-Gobodo said: “The commission is conscious of the need to expedite the settlement of the outstanding old order land claims. As such, Northern Cape, Free State and North West are projected to settle all the outstanding claims by the end of the current financial year. For the commision to contribute to the national goals, there has to be a delicate balance between expediting the pace of settling land claims, especially where land restoration is concerned and ensuring that such settlements are sustainable.”

Ntloko-Gobodo said the commission was streamlining its processes to ensure that land use and cash flow projections were done prior to settlement of claims.