Question NO204 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
22 April 2024 - NO204
Letlape, Ms M S to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
Since 1 December 1998, what are the full details of the progress that has been made to settle land claims; (2) whether she has found that it is possible to settle the remaining claims within the current budgetary limits, considering that the 7th report of the Land Access Movement of South Africa to the Land Claims Court indicated that her department would need over R30 billion to settle over 6000 remaining land claims; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. From inception until 31 December 2023, 83 056 land claims have been settled, and 3 889 701 hectares of land were acquired at an amount of R25 billion. Financial compensation of R23 billion was awarded to beneficiaries. The restitution programme has beneļ¬ted 2 345 547 individual beneficiaries who are members of 460 952 households and of those, 177 504 are female-headed households and 1 266 are headed by persons living with disabilities.
2. No. The Commission has set a target of 319 land claims to be settled and 339 land claims to be finalised in the 2024/25 financial year from a total of 5 944 outstanding land claims. The targets are aligned with the budget allocated. In addition to the budget allocated for the settlement of claims, an increase in human resource capacity would be vital as well as the implementation of the interim structure which is a key lever to the Backlog Reduction Strategy. At inception, the original structure of the Commission constituted 1 400 positions. However, the current start-up structure of the Department as of December 2020 states that the number of funded positions is 749 of which 693 positions are filled. This means that the Commission is presently operating at 50% of its original staff establishment
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