Parliament in bid to stop cash payouts for land

CAPE TOWN — Cashing in on land claims could be scrapped if lawmakers have their way.

Parliamentarians are agitating for changes to the Restitution of Land Rights Act that could make it harder for claimants to choose cash over land.

Members of the portfolio committee on rural development and land reform are irked that in the past year, in most instances, claimants have forgone receiving land in favour of cash payouts to the tune of R1.7bn.

The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights presented its 201415 report to the committee yesterday. A total of 428 claims were settled, exceeding the target of 379, the commission said.

The commission paid out more than R1bn to claimants. Had claimants opted for land, they would have received 7,450ha.

Chief land claims commissioner Nomfundo Gobodo said the commission had processed applications for 78,600 beneficiaries and dismissed 53 applications.

United Democratic Movement MP Mncedisi Filtane said the high rate of claimants taking financial compensation instead of land was alarming, and pressed Ms Gobodo for answers.

Claimants requested money for various reasons, including to settle accounts and to pay for expenses such as funerals, Ms Gobodo said.

Attempts to get claimants to accept land had proved unsuccessful, she said. Committee chairwoman Phumzile Ngwenya-Mabila said if the act empowered a claimant to turn down land in favour of money, it should be amended.

Land claims reopened after the previous programme came to an end in 1998, when the state found it had underestimated its scope.