The Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform welcomes the support expressed by residents of the Eden District for the Restitution of the Land Rights Amendment Bill.
The first round of the committee’s nationwide public consultation process saw hundreds of people gather at the Conville Civic in George. They lauded the initiative to extend the cut-off date of lodging land claims from 1998 to 2018.
Local resident Mr Harry Jacobs said the extension of the deadline would afford him and many others, who were told they had missed the deadline, an adequate opportunity to claim back the land their forefathers had died for. Mr Jacobs said he understood the importance of owning land, so he did not want to be financially compensated but only wanted his forefathers’ land back.
Ms Xoliswa Mzayifani of Plettenberg Bay also welcomed the proposed extension date but advised the committee to ensure that government publicised the process in order to allow the affected people ample time to lodge their land claims. Ms Mzayifani said the reason people in Plettenberg and surrounding areas missed the initial deadline was due to lack of information on how and when their claims should have been lodged.
The committee was also pleased that community members backed the provision that seeks to criminalise any person that might prevent, obstruct, or unduly influence a claimant from pursuing lodging his or her claim. Similarly, community members agreed with proposed provisions that aim to penalise any person from lodging fraudulent claims.
Committee Chairperson Mr Jerry Thibedi said all the views by residents would be taken into consideration in order to avoid the repeat of the challenges that characterised the previous restitution process. “We acknowledge that some of you lodged your complaints more than 10 years ago but we want to assure you that we will do our best to ensure that all the shortcomings get iron out before this Bill comes into effect,” he added.
Mr Thibedi said Parliament would ensure that the authorities tasked with processing applications did so expeditiously and that the process ran smooth for the benefit of many people who had their land taken from them.
The hearings will continue to Eastern Cape on Monday and Tuesday.
For media enquiries:
Foster Mohale (Mr), Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 2239
Cell: 072 432 3792
E-mail: fmohale@parliament.gov.za
Temba Gubula (Mr), Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8307
Cell : 078 735 8809
E-mail: tgubula@parliament.gov.za
