New land claims process to be challenged in court

Stefan Schäfer, Lich via Wikimedia Commons

Land rights organisations, the Land Access Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA), the Association for Rural Advancement, Nkunzi Development Association, the Communal Property associations of Moddervlei, Maluleke Communal Property Association and Popela will represent these communities in court assisted by lawyers from the Legal Resources Centre and Webber Wentzel.

“Allowing claimants who had missed the initial window period to access the restitution process is to be welcomed. However, the outstanding claims (8,257) that were lodged during the initial period must still be finalised. These existing claims will be affected by the new influx of restitution claims. The issue is that the Act fails to give clear guidance on how to deal with new claims that may clash or affect pending or unresolved existing claims,” the organisations said in a statement.

Applicants want process finalised

The Act aims to restore land back to communities which lost their land as a direct result of the 1913 Native Land Act which left many black people displaced from their properties through forced removals. But the communities say the Act is unconstitutional and vague, and also that the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) did not take reasonable steps to facilitate public participation.

New claims deadline - 30 June 2016

The communities (applicants) want the claims to be finalised as soon as possible as many of the claimants are elderly and some already passed on waiting for their land. They also want the Act to be declared invalid and that old order claims be ring-fenced pending the outcomes of challenged legislation.

Government reopened its land claims process, in 2014, allowing people, who missed an earlier deadline for lodging claims for compensation, to do so within the next five years. President Jacob Zuma signed into law the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act, which reopens the restitution claims process that closed at the end of 1998 and gives claimants five years - until 30 June 2019 - to lodge further claims.