What are the real implications of reopening land claims?
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Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape
Abstract
The Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act of 2014
has reopened the land claims process for another five years,
extending the deadline to 2019. An impact assessment
commissioned by the Department of Rural Development and
Land Reform (DRDLR) anticipates that an estimated 397 000
new claims will be lodged, at a potential outlay of
R130–179 billion (DRDLR, 2013) – possibly three times
the cost of the arms deal.
These are expensive and controversial measures. Some see
them as appropriate and necessary for pro-poor land reform
while others view them as highly problematic – especially
members of rural communities whose claims have not been
settled in the sixteen years since 1998, when the deadline
for lodging land claims expired. A slow and administratively
cumbersome process of land restitution has done little to
support the wider objective of transforming racially-skewed
patterns of land ownership. Many of the new claims will be
settled with cash compensation, and thus be even less likely
to achieve these objectives. The Act is likely to pit claimants
against one another in overlapping and competing claims,
and allow unscrupulous traditional leaders opportunities
to manipulate land claims for their own benefit.
This policy brief assesses arguments against the Act and
recommends measures to safeguard the land rights of ordinary
South Africans, including those who have already been
waiting for so long for their claims to be addressed, in a
context where new restitution claims open many opportunities
for abuse by elites.
Description
Keywords
Land claims, Traditional leaders, Land rights, Rural development, Pro-poor land
Citation
Cousins, B. et al. (2014). What are the real implications of reopening land claims? Policy Brief 34, Bellville: Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape