As a Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, we welcome the approval of the report by Cabinet on the audit of registered state land and desktop analysis of private land ownership in South Africa. The purpose of the exercise was to determine first how much land is owned by the state, what it is used for and who the occupants/users are and what buildings and improvements exist on it.
The physical inspection and verification of 1.15 million registered state land parcels commenced in mid-September 2011 and finalised in November 2012. In December 2012 the after analysis of captured data we discovered that there was insufficient data on 110 000 field forms and therefore revisited 110 000 land parcels. That exercise was completed in March 2013. Out of the collected and analysed information, the report reveals the users of state land; Government Departments, Municipalities, private individuals, organisations, State Owned Enterprises and what is used for, from agriculture, residential to conservation etc. The finding is that the state owns 14% (17 061 882 ha).
Parallel to this exercise desktop analysis of private land ownership was conducted. We were hoping to achieve the following distribution from this exercise; Gender, Race, Nationality/Citizenship, Percentage share - where an individual owns a land as a result of company and ownership, trusts, Marital Status, Living Status. We could only achieve distribution per the following categories; Private Individuals (Natural persons), Companies (Close Corporations, PTY LTD, etc.) excluding State Companies, Trust as registered by the Master of the high court and Private Organization – Churches.The report will reveal that the privately owned land constitutes 79% (96 550 791 ha).
There is 7% which is un-account for. This includes areas such as former Transkei which was not surveyed and registered, parts of Limpopo including North of Kruger National Park which was also not surveyed and registered and some mis-matched data from Deeds office. A further exercise to deal with 7% is underway including surveying of state domestic facilities. Over 3 million hectares in Eastern Cape (former Transkie and Ciskie) have been surveyed not yet registered and over 1 million hectares in Limpopo (including Kruger National Park) are soon to be registered.
It must be noted that it is for the first time this kind of exercise is conducted in South Africa, we now have baseline information on land ownership. This information will be used to enhance the integrity of land register, which will serve as the basis for land planning and administration, and also assist in the road map as stipulated on the National Development Plan.
Media enquiries:
Mr Mtobeli Mxotwa, Ministerial Spokesperson
Cell: 083 578 9023
