Cape Town – The Land Claims Commission is still saddled with 163 383 “new order claims” after a Constitutional Court interdict six years ago prevented it from processing the claims lodged from 2014 to 2016.
GOOD MP Brett Herron wrote to Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza noting that the Constitutional Court found the amendment to the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act unlawful in July 2016.
The court ruling, known as Land Access Movement of South Africa (Lamosa), put in abeyance the processing of claims that were lodged from 2014 to 2016 until all land claims lodged by December 1998 were finalised.
Parliament had sought to reopen the window period for land claims through the enactment of an amendment act that provided for new claims to be lodged until June 2019.
The court declared the amendment invalid and gave Parliament two years to fix the constitutional defects on the grounds that it failed to meet to facilitate adequate public participation.
However, the national legislature did not meet the deadline and its application for extension was not successful, a move that resulted in the interdict to process “the new order claims”.
Herron asked whether there was any progress made in drafting new legislation in accordance with the July 2016 Constitutional Court judgment so that all legitimate land claims can be resolved.
He also asked about the total number of claims that had been received from July 2014 to July 2016 that were now classified as unresolved and the date the Land Claims Commission envisaged to reopen the claims.
In her response, Didiza said a Private Members Bill was introduced by the ANC in August 2017 but it lapsed when Parliament rose at the end of the term two years later.
She said the commission was currently dealing with old order claims lodged before December 1998 and was not in a position to process new claims as there was no legislation or budget allocated to do so.
“The commission reports to the Land Claims Court every six months on progress on outstanding old order claims in line with Lamosa 2 order. The last report was submitted on 30 June 2022.”
Didiza also said there were currently 163 383 “new order claims”.
She said these would be dealt with when Parliament enacted new legislation to allow the processing of the new order claims or the commission settled all the outstanding old order claims lodged by 1998 as ordered by the Lamosa Constitution Court judgment in 2018.
In July, the “Cape Times” reported that the Land Claim Commission was saddled with nearly 7 000 outstanding land claims dating back to the 1998 deadline that have yet to be finalised.
Didiza was quoted as saying the commission had created a five-year project plan which would be concluded depending on available resources.
Cape Times