The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights is a statutory body established in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994 (Act No. 22 of 1994). Its main objective is to process to finality all valid land restitution claims lodged in terms of the said Act.
In order to qualify for restitution, the Act provides that individuals and or communities forcefully removed from their land after 19 June 1913, as a result of past racially discriminatory laws and or practices are eligible for restitution.
The Office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner: KwaZulu-Natal received over 16 000 land claims by the cut-off date of 31 December 1998. To date, a substantial number of land claims have been settled in KwaZulu-Natal through land restoration and payment of financial compensation.
In 2014, the process to lodge land claims was reopened which resulted in a substantial number of new land claims being lodged in KwaZulu-Natal.
However, on 28 July 2016 the Constitutional Court (Land Access Movement of South Africa and Others v Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces and Others [2016] ZACC 22) declared that the National Council of Provinces’ public participation process was unreasonable and therefore constitutionally invalid.
Therefore, effective from 28 July 2016 the new window of lodgement of claims was closed, which means that people are no longer able to lodge claims until the new Act has been passed.
Therefore the office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner-Restitution Support in KwaZulu-Natal will be hosting a media breakfast to give detail to the above and also provide information on the progress of the implementation on the restitution programme in KZN. The Commission will also be able to outline what it has achieved thus far and what it plans to achieve in the new financial year 2017/2018.
You are cordially invited to the abovementioned event to mark the progress that we are making in restoring land rights to claimants in KwaZulu-Natal.
Details for the briefing are as follows:
Date: 30 May 2017
Venue: Suncoast Conference Centre (Durban)
Time: 9h00
Kindly confirm your attendance with: Mr Sibusiso Lubisi, at Sibusiso.lubisi@drdlr.gov.za or 076 7931 658/012 312 9395 by no later than 29 May 2017.
