Thirty-year backlog of land claims will cost R170bn

It will take SA about 30 years and more than R170bn to settle land claim backlogs with the current budget at the current rate, the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights says.

The commission told parliamentarians that its current allocated budget is not enough to accelerate the settlement of old land claims.

SA has a backlog of 4,995 cases, with KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga accounting for the highest number of outstanding claims.

“These claims are mostly rural in nature and large claims comprising many property parcels and a large number of claimants. The Eastern Cape has a high number of financial compensation claims, which have historic backlog payments that are outstanding but are receiving attention,” said the commission.

At least 75% of the outstanding claims are in rural areas, and the rest is urban land.

“Although sectors such as conservation, sugarcane and forestry are in the lower percentiles, these claims are complex and affect the swiftness at which these claims are settled.

“We would need an overall budget estimate at R68bn over an accelerated period of five years. The shortage of allocation of funding by Treasury remains a challenge as the predicted budget needed to settle and finalise outstanding claims will not be sufficient,” the entity said.

“At the current budget allocation and settlement rate, the commission will need approximately 30 years to settle claims at a cost of R172bn,” it said.

The commission said external challenges hamper the finalisation of claims, including land invasions and multiple overlapping rights and competing claims. Since its inception and up to September 2022, it has settled more than 82,000 claims equating to 3.8-million hectares.

In a 2016 ruling commonly known as the Land Access Movement of SA (Lamosa), the Constitutional Court put the processing of claims lodged between 2014 and 2016 in abeyance until all land claims submitted by December 1998 had been finalised.

Another Constitutional Court judgment in 2019, referred to as Lamosa 2, prohibit the commission from processing any new order claims lodged between July 1 2014 and July 28 2016 until it has settled or referred to the Land Claims Commission all claims lodged on or before December 31 1998.

Meanwhile, the commission, headed by Nomfundo NtlokoGobodo, is seeking autonomy. To this end, it has developed a business case advocating to be a schedule 3A entity, which it has submitted to the Treasury for “consultation and advice”.

“The delay in approval and go-ahead to transition the commission to autonomy also affects the business of the commission,” the entity said.

“An estimation of Public Entity 3A cost with the additional support functions, current goods and services costs as well as the programme management costs will be R1.1bn per annum. Detailed costing will be confirmed after feedback from National Treasury.”

The chair of the agriculture, land reform and rural develop

ment portfolio committee, Zwelivelile Mandela, said: “I truly believe that the only manner where we will be able to fasttrack this is for us to implement expropriation of land without compensation and in doing so, we will be able to address this gross and grave injustice and ensure that land hunger is corrected.”

The ANC in 2021 failed to get the Land Expropriation Without Compensation Bill passed into law after it was shot down by the National Assembly. It was unable to get support for the bill from the EFF and ATM, who felt it did not go far enough.

However, the Expropriation Bill found new life last year and was passed by the National Assembly in September.

In its current form, it allows for the expropriation of land only for public purposes and in the interest of the public.

Agriculture, land reform & rural development minister Thoko Didiza said in the commission’s 2022/23 annual report measures are in place to expedite old claims.

“Both the presidential advisory panel on land Reform and the Lamosa Constitutional Court judgments of 2016 and 2019 impress upon the commission and the state to take all necessary measures to ensure that the processing and settlement of old order claims is expedited,” Didiza wrote.

“This the department owes to those land claimants who have been waiting for far too long since they lodged land claims before December 31 1998. To achieve this outcome, the department is supporting the measures that the commission is undertaking to make it an entity that works smarter and faster,” the minister said.

The commission’s budget for 2022/23 is R3.7bn.

Ntloko-Gobodo told Business Day the commission’s allocation is insufficient. “The two Constitutional Court judgments have bound us to prioritise finalising old claims. However, we need money to do that and if we can get additional allocations, we will be able to move faster in settling claims,” she said.