Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs Agriculture and Land Affairs

Mr AB MphelaMr AB MphelaActing Chief Land Claims CommissionerActing Chief Land Claims Commissioner

7 May 20087 May 2008

COMMISSION ON COMMISSION ON RESTITUTION OF LAND RESTITUTION OF LAND

RIGHTSRIGHTS

STRATEGIC PLAN

2008/2009

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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 President’s 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”.

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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 developmentIt is essential to ensure that as we restore land rights, quality of life of beneficiaries is improvedLand 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 othersThe Commission is faced with many challenges that are in their nature simply hindering the fast tracking of the settlement of the rural claimsThere 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 ownersDispute resolution and mediationLand price negotiations with current ownersProtracted and costly processes for expropriation where necessaryInstitutional capacity for community legal entities (e.g. CPA’s/ Trust)Facilitation of settlement support

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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

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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

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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 communitiesDispute 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 bodyAt a recent national indaba, Traditional Institutions committed to working with the Regional Commissioners towards unblocking some of the challengesThere 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 situationThe Commission is currently dealing with about 500 of such cases53 Notices of Possible Expropriation has been servedSome land owners use delay tactics where they are simply not prepared to acknowledge that a claim is validOngoing 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’ stakeholdersMemorandum of Agreements (MOAs) have been signed with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, SAPPI and MONDIWe 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 monthsIn 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 negotiateVarious 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 claimsWhere 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 officialsContinuous training and implementation of function of Directors: Quality AssuranceEffective human resource managementTight control mechanisms in placeMonitoring performance of implementing agenciesEffective communicationEffective 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 aspectGiven its prominence in the Constitution, Apex priorities and ANC resolutions, Land and Agrarian reform remains a national priorityPost 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 projectsThe 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 settlementsThe 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 body’s 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 ALLOCATIONSubprogramme Audited outcome Adjusted Medium-term expenditure

estimate

appropriation

R thousand 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

National Office

14 562 23 003 18 825 25 658 20 204 22 171 24 985

Regional Office

151 497 184 044 227 026 304 673 185 466 195 058 207 971

Restitution Grants

1 016 721

1582 334 2 092 515

3 246 764 2 891 635 1 431 236

1 093 110

Total 1 182 780

1 789 381 2 338 336

3 577 095 3 097 305 1 648 465

1 326 066

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Cumulative Performance for the Restitution Programme

04495

13830

30670

37279

48711

59345

6201 4 412

74417

7469872927

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

Actual

Linear(Actual)

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CLOSING REMARKS

By end January, significant progress: 74 698 settled of 79 696 lodgedOf those settled, 88% = urban and 12% ruralMajority of urban claimants opted for financial compensation – R4.7 billion at 31 Jan 2008Rural – land restoration – R1,99 million ha at 31 Jan 2008Projection: 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

I THANK YOU/ I THANK YOU/ BAIE DANKIE/ BAIE DANKIE/ KEALEBOGA KEALEBOGA

S25 of the ConstitutionProvides Restitution

for all victims of racial

land dispossession