Land matters and rural development : 2010 : journal

• Author: Nic Olivier,Willemien Du Plessis,Juanita Pienaar
• Published date: 01 January 2011
• Date: 01 January 2011
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC153205
• Pages: 292-318

Land matters and rural development:

2010

1 General

In some municipal areas, land grabbing was instigated which led to illegal clearing of land

and settlement even within wetland areas (Coetzee ‘Jeugliga-hoof deel grond uit’ Beeld

(2009-08-11) 4). In the Tshwane Metro Council area informal settlement seems to be

orchestrated in certain mining areas. Although the Council is able to provide land to 29 500

people, land invasions are still a common feature and the Council is constantly embroiled

in eviction proceedings (Versluis ‘29 500 kan blyplek kry met plan, hoor hof in

uitsettingsaak’ Beeld (2010-03-25) 18). In Johannesburg people were evicted from derelict

buildings without any alternative accommodation. They paid rent for the flats and were

unaware that they were illegal occupants (Thakali ‘Red ants evict 1000 from derelict block’

Saturday Star (2010-02-13) 5).

A Rural Development and Land Reform General Amendment Bill [B33-2010] was

introduced into Parliament. The main purpose of this Bill is to ‘amend certain laws of which

the administration, powers and functions have been transferred to the Minister of Rural

Development and Land Reform in terms of Proclamation no 44 of 1 July 2009.’ The

legislation is amended to reflect the correct names of the Minister, Department and

Director-General wherever the amendments are applicable.

In this note land the most important measures and court decisions pertaining to

restitution, land redistribution, land reform, housing, land use planning, deeds, agriculture

and rural development are discussed.

1

2 Land restitution

According to a presentation by the Chief Land Claims Commissioner to the Portfolio

Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform on 28 October 2009 (http://www

.pmg.org.za/files/docs/090811drdala.ppt), a total of 545 rural restitution claims were settled

in the 2008/2009 financial year. 1.5 million individuals have benefitted from the restitution

programme since 1995, and the total claims settled (as at 2009-03-31) amount to 95.5%

of all claims lodged. A total of 15 439 urban claims has been settled through land

restoration, 47 726 through financial compensation, and 2 477 through alternative

1

In this note the most important literature, legislation and court decisions are discussed for the period

2009-09-01 to 2010-11-15. Only one note on land matters and rural development will be published

in 2010 due to a special edition of the (2010) Southern Africa Public Law.

Land matters and rural development: 2010 293

remedies. With regard to rural claims settled, 4 652 claims have been settled through land

restoration, 52 288 through financial compensation, and 2 913 through alternative

remedies. 108 rural claims have been dismissed. This amounts to a total of 75 400 claims

which have been settled (the total land cost being R11 306 194 957). All these statistics

relate to the period between 1995 and 2009-03-31. In terms of the briefing document on

the analysis of the Annual Report (2008/09) of the Commission on Restitution of Land

Rights (http://www.pmg.org.za/files/docs/ 090811analysis.rtf) 4 296 claims are still

outstanding, the majority of which are in KwaZulu-Natal (with 1 652 (mostly complex)

outstanding claims).

The Gauteng, Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape regional offices planned

to finalise their claims at the end of the 2009/2010 financial year. The Mpumalanga

regional office plans to finalise its claims in 2012, followed by the Limpopo office in 2013

and the KwaZulu-Natal office in 2014. During the financial year under review, strategic

support partnerships were concluded with, amongst others, First National Bank, the

Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Amahlathi Forestry Company and Anglo-

American. In addition, AgriSETA has agreed to provide critical skills training to new land

owners. The recapitalisation programme will be applied to approximately 200 struggling

projects.

The Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights identified a number of challenges

to the successful finalisation of the restitution programme, including, amongst others, the

fact that many land parcels are unsurveyed, the lack of funding as a result of projects not

being included in municipal IDPs, the lack of capacity building and expert training for

community members, the lack of co-operative governance, escalating costs for productive

land and inadequate post-settlement support (see also 10 below).

2.1 Notices

Various land claims notices were published in the Government Gazette, the majority being

in the Eastern and Western Cape (see, eg, Peninsula (Cape Town, Parow, Goodwood,

Rylands, Jakkalsvlei, Elsies Rivier, Belville, Retreat, Brackenfell, Vasco, Kensington,

Crawford, District Six, Landsdowne, Mowbray, Newlands, Wynberg, Woodstock) 52;

Stellenbosch 6; Porterville 3; Robertson, and Worcester 2 and one each for Plettenberg

Bay, Ottery, Simon’s Town, Paarl, Muizenberg, Bredasdorp, Grabouw, Barrydale,

Clanwilliam, Struisbaai, Ceres, Gouda, Worcester, Tulbagh, Wellington, Rooiberg,

Riebeeck West, Malmesbury and one with no details); Mpumalanga (Nkangala 18;

Msukalikwa 1; Steve Tshwete 3; Gert Sibande 10; Emakhazeni 7; Enkangala 2; Ehlanzeni

2; Umjindi; No district; Mkhando and Msukaligwa 1 each); Eastern Cape (King William’s

Town 7; Flagstaff/Alfred Nzo 2; Port Elizabeth 10; Sterkspruit/Ukhahlamba 23;

Alexandria/Cacadu 25; Humansdorp/Cacadu 1; Buffalo City/Amathole 1; Engcobo 1;

Middledrift 4; Maclear 1; Nqamakwe/Amathole 1; Butterworth 4; Mqanduli 1; Mzimkhulu

7; Ngqeleni 1; Port St Johns 2; Peddie/Amathole 81; Stutterheim/Amathole 1; Lady Frere

2; Mount Fletcher 4; Whittlesea/Chris Hani 1; Tsolo 17; Umtata 1 and Glen Grey 1); Free

State and Northern Cape (Siyanda, Kenhardt, Mangaung and Kuruman one each); North

West and Gauteng (Madibeng 2; Bojanala 6; Pretoria 1; Kenneth Kaunda 1, Westonaria

1; Zusterstroom 1); Limpopo (Greater Giyani, Sekhukhune and Capricorn one each).

Several withdrawal and amendment notices were published (in the case of KwaZulu-Natal,

eg, approximately 8 amendment and 3 withdrawal notices were published.) The Limpopo