Northern Cape resident Mr Boniface Masiane has told a delegation of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform that it would be discriminatory and undemocratic not to reopen the land claims period to allow more South Africans, who missed out on the initial period closing date of 1998, to lodge claims.

Speaking during public hearings on the restitution of land rights this week, Mr Masiane said the land reform programme would be a failure if some people who lost land through the infamous 1913 Natives’ Land Act, were left out of the restitution process by a democratic government which has made a commitment to reverse the wrongs committed by apartheid rule.

“I support the reopening of the land claims process so that people who missed out could also get an opportunity to lodge claims for their land that was forcefully taken by the old government as a result of the Natives’ Land Act of 1913, let the people get their land back,” said Mr Masiane during public hearings at Postmasburg.

Also voicing her support for the intended reopening of the land claims, which the bill seeks to do, Ms Ida Kock from De Aar thanked Parliament and the portfolio committee for involving the public in processing the proposed law.

The Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform is conducting extensive public hearings, countrywide, on the redrafted Bill after it was reintroduced in the National Assembly as a Private Members’ Bill by Member of Parliament Mr Pumzile Mnguni, following a Constitutional Court judgment that nullified the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act of 2014.

Parliament passed the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act in 2014 to reopen the lodgement of land claims for a period of five years, and the Land Access Movement of South Africa (Lamosa) took the matter to the Constitutional Court, which declared that the Act was invalid, because “Parliament failed to satisfy its obligation to facilitate public involvement in accordance with section 72 (1)(a) of the Constitution”.

On 26 February 2016 the Constitutional Court nullified the Land Rights Amendment Act of 2014, citing inadequate public involvement, and gave Parliament two years to rectify the mistake, the court ruled that the public participation by the National Council of Provinces was inadequate.

On Monday and Tuesday, the committee met with the communities of ZF Mgcawu and Pixley Ka Seme District Municipalities where the Bill received overwhelming support.

‘Hundred percent support for the Bill and the reopening of land claims, there was not even one person in the hall who was against the reopening of land claims period,” said Mr Mnguni, during a meeting at Thembeni Hall in Prieska, Pixley Ka Seme District Municipality.

As a result of the court judgment all claims that were lodged between 2014 and 2016 have been frozen and will only be processed after the bill has been passed.

During the initial phase of the claims period which closed in December 1998, only around 80 000 people lodged claims out of a potential 7.5 million dispossessed South Africans.

By Sakhile Mokoena

19 June 2018