Valuations save state millions

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 the government had managed to claw back millions it used to pay in purchasing land.

Nomfundo Gobodo, Chief Land Claims Commissioner, told MPs that setting up the Office of the Valuer-General in 2014, had saved the government millions of rand.

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

Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti told Parliament this month that the state has saved R84 million.

This is higher than the initial 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 at 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 fair and equitable compensation.

Lowering

According to Gobodo, they have seen the lowering of the prices of land bought by the government since this office was established.

The government had complained it was charged huge prices by farmers to buy the land for its land reform programmes.

The ANC has been discussing land over the past few months. President Jacob Zuma and others backing him have been calling for the expropriation of land without compen- sation.

Zuma even urged the ANC to co-operate with parties that back his plans to amend the constitution and deal with the land question.

However, the ANC voted against the EFF in Parliament on a motion to amend the constitution.

Zuma said in Parliament three weeks ago when he was presenting the Presidency’s budget vote that there would be no Zimbabwe-style land grabs in South Africa.

He said the land question would be dealt with in a fair process and in line with the laws of the land and the constitution.

Gobodo also told Parliament there was a backlog of land claims they needed to attend to.

These cases dated back to the first window of 1998 and they have to reduce the backlog before the new window reopens.

They want to fix the backlog cases before the Restitution of Land Rights Bill is fixed by Parliament after being directed by the Constitutional Court to do so.