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- The SAHRC held a conference reflecting on the measures taken towards land redistribution.
- The conference looked at some issues delaying land restitution and redistribution.
- It included corruption, disputes among beneficiaries, and land invasions.
Corruption, fights among beneficiaries, and landowners hiding land in trusts have been outlined as some of the issues causing delays in the redistribution and restitution of land.
This revelation was made by Terries Ndove, the deputy director-general responsible for land redistribution and tenure reform at the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.
He was speaking at the national conference to mark 110 years of the Native Land Act.
The forum was hosted by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) at the Birchwood Hotel on Wednesday.
In attendance were several officials and heads of different chapter institutions, including the Office of the Public Protector, the Commission for Gender Equality, the Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, and the Office of the Auditor-General.
Corruption
The Acting Public Protector, advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, said that, if not for the conduct and intentions of officials in some government departments, the issue of land redistribution and restitution could be going smoothly.
Gcaleka referred to a 2019 SIU report, which found that there were corrupt activities in the transaction of 145 farms and that some beneficiaries were not entitled to the land.
She said prices had been inflated by government officials and, in certain instances, officials solicited bribes from beneficiaries.
Gcaleka referred to a Corruption Watch report, which she said found rampant bribery in most land claims, with Gauteng recording most cases.
Gcaleka said:
Disputes among beneficiaries
Ndove said fighting among beneficiaries caused delays.
"Sometimes, there are disagreements on who are the rightful beneficiaries and, immediately if there is a dispute, then there will be delays as sometimes there will be court cases involved."
Ndove admitted that, in some instances, the land was handed to people who were not beneficiaries.
One of the attendees, Johannes Nketsing Mokoena, who is a representative of the Workers, Occupiers, Tenants and Dwellers Forum, which mainly deals with issues of people living on farms, told Ndove the current land restitution and distribution programme was in complete chaos.
READ | SAHRC concerned about slow pace of land restitution process, says chairperson
Mokoena said the intended beneficiaries were not benefitting from the process because it was marred by corruption.
"Officials are using the beneficiaries and stealing from them," he said.
Mokoena criticised the current method used by the government when advertising land claims.
"The people you intend to reach don't have laptops and access to the internet. When you ask them to submit claims electronically or place adverts online, you exclude them because they don't have access to those things," Mokoena said.
Ndove agreed, and said they would review the current methods, so as to ensure that farm workers and dwellers were fully catered for.
Landowners hiding the land
Ndove said landowners were finding creative ways to hide land to avoid giving it to claimants or selling it to the state.
According to Ndove, most of the land in the country was owned by trusts and companies, making it almost impossible for beneficiaries to claim it.
"People usually hide money through trusts; what we are finding now is that they are using trusts to hide the land," he said.
"We also have people who are reluctant to sell the land and, of late, they come up with exorbitant prices, which leaves us to purchase smaller land at a higher price," he said.
Another challenge, according to Ndove, was landowners who refused to acknowledge the presence of labour tenants in their space and usually denied the claim.
"We then also find ourselves having to go to court in such cases," he said.
Ndove said land invasions remained a challenge and it required a legal process to have people evicted.
