Measures in place to speed up land reform after long delays

AGRICULTURE, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza says government is still pushing to fast-track land reform despite years of delays.

Didiza was briefing members of the ad hoc committee on land expropriation yesterday when she said they had put in place intervention measures to speed up land reform.

After 1994 the government had planned to redistribute 30 million hectares of land within five years. That target was not met.

Some of the problems encountered included the slow pace of processing land claims due to the shortage of staff at the Land Claims Court.

The government’s restitution claims were slow because of issues around policy and legislation, said Didiza. Some of the problems related to research on validating claims.

“Again, the acquisition strategy was through the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle and as we know the application of the factors in section 25 of the Constitution, particularly section 25(3) (which) indicates how the state can determine just and equitable compensation, became difficult in two different aspects. One … you require archival records which will give history of acquisition. The Constitutional drafters, in my view, assumed all land was acquired when we all know that after the promulgation of the 1913 Native Land Act, beneficiaries were allocated land,” said Didiza.

Later owners and their dependants sold the land. The difficulty was determining at what stage the land was acquired.

“This is one of the areas the amendment of section 25 will have to reflect.”

There was also lack of co-ordination in land reform across the state, she said. However, the inter-ministerial committee on land reform, chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza, was playing an overarching role. This would help in fast-tracking land reform, Didiza said.