Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs

1
COMMISSION ON RESTITUTION OF LAND RIGHTS
STRATEGIC PLAN 2008/2009

• Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on
  Agriculture and Land Affairs
• Mr AB Mphela
• Acting Chief Land Claims Commissioner
• 7 May 2008

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STRATEGIC DIRECTION

• State of the Nation Address, 8 February 2008
• In 2007, the President reflected on the
  challenges faced by the Commission towards
  finalizing outstanding claims and this year he
  stated
• we continue to address a number of many
  weaknesses, including the finalization of the
  land restitution cases, the support programme for
  those who acquire land
• President Thabo Mbeki

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STRATEGIC DIRECTION cont

• The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs,
  Ms Lulama Xingwana stated
• The Commission has taken the Presidents SONA
  message of Business Unusual very seriously and
  has committed in its Strategic Planning to settle
  at least 2585 of the outstanding claims in the
  remaining period. Operation Gijima remains
  effective and we will work very hard to reach our
  target.

4
STRATEGIC DIRECTION cont

• The Land Summit resolutions of 2005, the 52nd
  Polokwane Conference of the ruling party and
  various Makgotla all underlined the importance of
  post settlement and sustainable development
• It is essential to ensure that as we restore land
  rights, quality of life of beneficiaries is
  improved
• Land reform must be a spring board for lasting
  socio-economic development, poverty alleviation
  and income generation

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FINALISING THE OUTSTANDING CLAIMS

• The outstanding claims vary in nature from claims
  on smaller agricultural farms involving cropping,
  grazing and cattle to highly commercialized farms
  involving fruit exports, sugar cane operations,
  forestry, national parks and others
• The Commission is faced with many challenges that
  are in their nature simply hindering the fast
  tracking of the settlement of the rural claims
• There could be a residual of 2 to 3 of these
  claims which might not be settled by the end of
  2008
• The Commission has projected to settle 2585
  claims by the end of the 2008 financial year

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FINALISING THE OUTSTANDING CLAIMS cont

• Challenges towards settling the rural claims, are
  linked with the second issue in the 2008 SONA,
  namely the support programme for those who
  acquire land
• Ensuring that the necessary support is provided
  to new land owners for sustainability of the
  projects, requires careful planning and extensive
  stakeholder involvement which lead to longer
  processes

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FINALISING RURAL CLAIMS INVOLVE

• Assisting claimants to structure various
  affidavits for property descriptions, rightful
  descendants, document oral evidence, etc. i.e. as
  in families, claimant communities and land owners
• Dispute resolution and mediation
• Land price negotiations with current owners
• Protracted and costly processes for expropriation
  where necessary
• Institutional capacity for community legal
  entities (e.g. CPAs/ Trust)
• Facilitation of settlement support

8
RURAL CLAIMS NOT SETTLED BY 2008

• Claims where there are disputes with land owners
  on the validity of claims, land prices,
  settlement models and conditions
• Claims where there is reluctance to release state
  land by other government departments and
  institutions
• Claims affected by high land prices and disputes
  on valuations

9
RURAL CLAIMS NOT SETTLED BY 2008

• Claims that are in the Land Claims Court because
  of disputes
• Claims where there are family/ community disputes
• Claims where there are conflict amongst
  Traditional Leaders and boundary disputes

10
SYNOPSIS PROGRESS TO DATE

• The Commission has settled 74 698 claims
  benefiting more than 1 million beneficiaries
• Financial compensation to the value of R4, 746
  billion was committed
• Total hectares of 1,994 million have been
  allocated at a cost of R 7,169 billion
• Grants of a total of R2,496 billion were
  committed towards ensuring sustainability of
  projects
• 4380 rural claims where land has been restored
  has been settled to date

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OUTSTANDING CLAIMS
Eastern Cape 557
Free State 99
Northern Cape 225
Gauteng 4
North West 219
KwaZulu Natal 1751
Limpopo 684
Mpumalanga 864
Western Cape 599
Total 4998
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CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

• Untraceable claimants
• There are currently about 580 claims that involve
  untraceable claimants

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COMMUNITY DISPUTES INCLUDING COMMUNITY
INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES

• The Commission is currently dealing with about
  240 claims where there are a number of issues
  that lead to disputes within the communities
• Dispute resolution service has been instituted,
  but where required, political intervention is
  sought.
• The Commission also engages the Department of
  Land Affairs where there are major disputes in
  some Communal Property Institutions
• The Commission promotes that the Constitutions of
  the legal entities should be very detailed and
  all members of the community involved during the
  negotiations are informed about decisions taken

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TRADITIONAL LEADERS/ AUTHORITY ISSUES/ BOUNDARY
DISPUTES

• The Traditional Leaders are not always accepting
  democratic processes in the restitution process.
  Land belongs to the community removed and not to
  the traditional leader.
• This leads to conflict between traditional
  leaders and the members of the community, or
  between the legal entity and the traditional
  authority who does not always accept the legal
  entity as the decision making body
• At a recent national indaba, Traditional
  Institutions committed to working with the
  Regional Commissioners towards unblocking some of
  the challenges
• There is mutual agreement to involve the
  Traditional Authorities in disputes

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DISPUTE WITH REGARD TO VALIDITY OF CLAIMS AND
PRICE

• Land owners tend to dispute the validity of the
  claim and/or the price and are not always
  prepared to negotiate a win win situation
• The Commission is currently dealing with about
  500 of such cases
• 53 Notices of Possible Expropriation has been
  served
• Some land owners use delay tactics where they are
  simply not prepared to acknowledge that a claim
  is valid
• Ongoing liaison is promoted with the land owners,
  also via the Agricultural Unions

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DISPUTE WITH REGARD TO VALIDITY OF CLAIMS AND
PRICE cont

• Effort is made to communicate the outcome of
  judgments like the Popela judgement
• Where negotiations fail, the Commission will have
  no option but to refer to the Land Claims Court
• There are currently 105 cases in the Land Claims
  Court over which the Commission has no control
  and which would take long to finalize

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FORESTRY, CONSERVATION AND MINING CLAIMS

• These claims involve a number of high-level
  stakeholders
• Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) have been signed
  with the Department of Environmental Affairs and
  Tourism, SAPPI and MONDI
• We have just negotiated successfully with
  Anglo-American in terms of claims with a mining
  aspect and a MOA will be signed within the next
  three months
• In most cases challenges arise when it comes to
  implementation which entails real benefit for the
  claimants, including co-management

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FORESTRY, CONSERVATION AND MINING CLAIMS cont

• It is not always clear what models would be the
  best and this can take long to negotiate
• Various Task Teams are working on these for all
  of the categories currently, looking at best
  practice and precedence in terms of settlements
  and judgments
• This also entails identifying budget implications
  for settling the more commercial types of claims
• Where cooperative governance has to be driven at
  ministerial level, political intervention will be
  requested

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STATE LAND FOR RESTITUTION PURPOSES

• The Commission intends to request political
  intervention at ministerial level in terms of
  cooperative governance where there remains
  reluctance to release state land by other
  government departments and institutions

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POSSIBLE RISKS OF GIJIMA

• Fiscal dumping
• Process not judicially correct
• Cannot address development issues effectively
• Possible compromise on quality
• Possible loopholes for fraud
• Short circuiting of some processes

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MANAGING THE RISKS

• Clear communication of risk management policies
  and guidelines to all officials
• Continuous training and implementation of
  function of Directors Quality Assurance
• Effective human resource management
• Tight control mechanisms in place
• Monitoring performance of implementing agencies
• Effective communication
• Effective procurement systems
• Effective financial management through proper
  systems, guidelines, training and monitoring

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SETTLEMENT SUPPORT

• The need for settlement support is reiterated by
  the analysis done on a total of 324 settled
  claims/ projects with a developmental aspect
• Given its prominence in the Constitution, Apex
  priorities and ANC resolutions, Land and Agrarian
  reform remains a national priority
• Post settlement support has been identified as
  critical for the success and sustainability of
  our land reform programme

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SETTLEMENT SUPPORT cont

• Current land use on 47.2 of the projects is
  agricultural and on 8.3 it is housing. Other
  land uses consist of a combination of land uses
  for example agriculture and forestry forms 8,95
  of the projects
• The analysis showed that the proposed land use
  suggested by beneficiaries will diversify from
  the current land use and a combination of land
  use was suggested by most beneficiaries in terms
  of their livelihood strategies

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SETTLEMENT SUPPORT cont

• The recently developed Settlement Implementation
  Support Strategy will be implemented to ensure
  sustainable land settlements
• The approach of the strategy is in sync with the
  Area Based Planning and Pro-Active Land
  Acquisition Strategy, and is based on the premise
  that land reform is every bodys business the
  State, parastatals, private sector, etc.
• The Strategy places land and agrarian reform at
  the center of local government ensuring that all
  projects are embedded in the IDPs

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RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Subprogramme Subprogramme Audited outcome Audited outcome Audited outcome Adjusted Medium-term expenditure estimate Medium-term expenditure estimate Medium-term expenditure estimate
appropriation
R thousand 2004/05 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
National Office 14 562 14 562 23 003 18 825 25 658 20 204 22 171 24 985
Regional Office 151 497 151 497 184 044 227 026 304 673 185 466 195 058 207 971
Restitution Grants 1 016 721 1 016 721 1582 334 2 092 515 3 246 764 2 891 635 1 431 236 1 093 110
Total 1 182 780 1 182 780 1 789 381 2 338 336 3 577 095 3 097 305 1 648 465 1 326 066
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(No Transcript)
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CLOSING REMARKS

• By end January, significant progress 74 698
  settled of 79 696 lodged
• Of those settled, 88 urban and 12 rural
• Majority of urban claimants opted for financial
  compensation R4.7 billion at 31 Jan 2008
• Rural land restoration R1,99 million ha at 31
  Jan 2008
• Projection total cost for all settled claims
  R14.41 billion,
• Spending on restitution is expected to decrease
  from R3.5 billion in 2007/08 to R1.3 billion in
  2010/11

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I THANK YOU/ BAIE DANKIE/
KEALEBOGA

S25 of the Constitution Provides Restitution
for all victims of racial land dispossession