Report of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs on Visit to Gauteng Province, dated 21 June 2005:

The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs, having undertaken a visit to Gauteng Province in Germiston on 27 May 2005, reports as follows:

Background of the visit

On 27 May 2005, the Committee undertook a visit to Gauteng province visiting Germiston. The multi-party delegation under the leadership of the Acting-Chairperson, Mrs E. Ngaleka (ANC) included Mrs BM Ntuli (ANC); Mr BA Radebe (ANC); Mr Z. Kotwal (ANC); Mr TDH Ramphele (ANC); Mr S. Abram (ANC); Mr J. Bici (UDM); Mr M.V Ngema (IFP); and Mr P.J Nefolovhodwe (AZAPO). Mr J. Boltina (Committee Secretary) and Ms Zukiswa Jara (Committee Assistant) accompanied the delegation.

The Democratic Alliance mandated Mr G. Wolmarous from the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to join the delegation.

The Chairperson, Mr J. Boers represented the Gauteng Provincial Standing Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs. The Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni represented by Mr Theo Rossouw, Councillor responsible for Housing.

The following members represented the Gauteng Land Restitution Claims Committee: Mr C. Khanyile; Mr Dodo Shiburi; Mr Morapeli Seuoa; Mr Jacob Manase; Mr Mohlalefi Mokoena; Mr George Meluva; Ms Catherine Ncwana; and Mr Ignatius Thipane.

Mr Tozi Gwanya represented both the National Commission on Restitution of Land Rights and the Department of Land Affairs. Regional Land Claims Commission: Gauteng and North West represented by Mr Blessing Mphela; Ms Annelize Roesch; and Mr Elton Greeve, Parliamentary Officer for Department of Land Affairs.

The Acting Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Ngaleka indicated that the Committee attended the meeting to honour the request made by Gauteng Land Claims Restitution Committee to the Committee in August 2004. Because of many challenges, demands and obligations imposed by the Programme of Parliament, it was impossible for the Committee to attend to the invitation during 2004. It was for that reason that the Committee agreed in its meetings held on 17 & 24 May 2005 to attend the meeting with the Gauteng Land Claims Restitution Committee on 27 May 2005 to discuss the problem of valid claims rejected by the Land Claims Commission.

Brief overview

Mr Khanyile stated that the Gauteng Land Claims Committee established in February 2004 consists of 29 areas in Gauteng. It represents 66 000 people who were left out during the restitution process and is still collecting statistics. The Restitution of Land Rights Act (Act No. 22 of 1994) is generally perceived by the dispossessed people as a good gesture of restoring the dignity of communities that were dispossessed. Such a gesture should heal the wounds, uplift the socio-economic standard of life and pave the way for genuine reconciliation. However, section 2(1) e of the Act has left a multitude of authentic potential Restitution of Land Rights claimants due to the cut-off date of 31^st December 1998.

Presentation by Gauteng Land Claims Committee

December 1994: The Restitution of Land Rights Act (Act No. 22 of 1994) was promulgated and subsequently the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights and Land Claims Court were established.

March 1995: 3 years and 9 months before the cut-off date for the lodgment of land restitution claims, the first democratic Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs, led by former Minister Derek Hanekom, appointed Ms E. Mashinini as the first Commissioner for Gauteng and North West. Two other provinces and also appointed four other Commissioners. These Commissioners were legally authorized to discharge tasks such as making enquiries by accessing relevant information pertaining to the disposed, writing reports about the great removal scheme of Africans from their areas and performing other duties regarding the dispossessed.

It must be evident that much was not done in urban areas as per the Commissioner’s statistics for Gauteng. The Committee was informed that there are only 11 885 claims lodged in Gauteng and only 33 000 countrywide. Such information is not impressive and it is therefore unacceptable to the worst victims (Africans) of forced removals.

June 1995 to January 1996: the period is two years and eleven months before the cut-off date for lodgment of land claims. The Commission appointed eight public servants for Gauteng and North West whom should have interacted with all the dispossessed through the formation of community based structures which could have assisted in the compilation of data and the provision of solutions to other challenges. The ideal situation is to appoint such public servants from amongst dispossessed respective communities. At that point in time, a great number of authentic claimants, including Government officials, were unaware of the Commission’s mandate of restitution claims process, hence this current problem of the many that was left out by the cut-off date. It is therefore, clear that the initial stages of the Commission’s undertakings were not implemented properly.

March 1996: the first batch of twenty- seven Gazetted claims was processed. Most of those were rural claims and some were claims from free-holding areas. It is apparent to all people that other areas were wittingly or unwittingly left out. Hence, the request that the Restitution of Land Rights Claims process be revisited through discussions in order to scrutinize whether the aim of promoting reconciliation through the Restitution process was satisfactory realized.

June 1998: the Commission launched a massive National Public Awareness Campaign in Pretoria only six months before the cut-off date for lodgement of claims. The campaign is appreciated but it has given much controversy due to its timing and the lack of outreach programmes to most deserving claimants. In the opinion of the Gauteng committee, the Commission failed when comparing that campaign with, for example, the General Election Campaigns. The committee believed that other stakeholders such as the Provincial Governments and Municipalities did not know of such a campaign.

December 31, 1998: given the complexities created by the cut-off date for lodgment of claims, one may conclude that the date has been proved to be futile. It did not accomplish much joy for the majority, which is sad miserable.

South African Yearbook 2003/4 states that "forced removals from white areas affected some 3.5 million people and vast rural slums were created in the homelands which were used as dumping grounds." "By 2002 approximately 68 000 claims had been lodged, of which 72% were urban and 28% rural. A total of 36 489 claims had been settled, involving about 85 000 households. Urban claims mostly involved financial compensation for victims of forced removals. The total compensation made by December 2002 was R 1.2 billion." and

Therefore, the request is to ask Parliament through the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs to kindly redress the imbalances of the past by amending Section 2(1)e of the Restitution of Land Rights Act (Act No. 22 of 1994) which would allow for re-opening of lodgment of the restitution claims.

Presentation by Chief Land Claims Commissioner

The Commissioner briefed Members of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs about the process on the Stake Your Claim Awareness Campaign from 1st June 1998 leading to the 31st December 1998, the latter being the last date for lodgment of the land restitution.

The Restitution of Land Rights Act states that all claims must be lodged before 31 December 1998, this date came as a result of an amendment to the Act that was made by Parliament to extend the lodgment of claims from May 1998 to 31 December 1998. The reason for this extension was that Parliament noted that the response rate to the lodgment of claims was poor given that the land dispossessions affected more than 6 million people.

When the restitution process was initially undertaken, a high profile communications campaign, namely the "Stake your Claim Awareness Campaign" was nationally launched on 1 June 1998. This campaign was a joint venture between the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, the National Department of Land Affairs and the National Land Committee, which included all its affiliates. The campaign also included interaction with NGOs and the South African Council of Churches (SACC). The campaign targeted all potential claimants who qualified for restitution – persons as well as their descendants who were forcibly removed from their land as a result of racial laws and practices since 1913. The target audience of the campaign was very diverse and widely dispersed through out the country. Forced removals were targeted primarily at black, coloured and Indian people in rural and urban areas.

The campaign targeted the use of mass communications media, that is, advertisements on national and community radio stations in 11 languages, advertisements on television, workshops in urban and rural areas, posters as well as pamphlets in the 11 languages, taxi rank promotions, door to door visits and the establishment of a Call Centre with a toll free number.

The radio campaign was targeted particularly at people in the remote areas and the advantage of such a campaign was that the same message would be transmitted nationally and on community radio stations to all the campaign audiences in languages that people understood.

These adverts were broadcasted at peak times in the morning and the evenings when most people either getting ready to go to work or on their way to work and in the evenings when they were already at home. The audience also included people remaining at home, housewives, retired persons, youth and unemployed persons. (988 radio spots on 16 different radio stations).

The television campaign was by far the most successful element of the campaign. It targeted mainly urban, peri-urban groups and also rural areas. High impact spots were targeted, that is, before news bulletins, sport programmes (soccer matches and boxing), etc. This was however, also the most expensive campaign (11 spots).

The pamphlet campaign – pamphlets explaining to people how to lodge a claim in 11 languages have been distributed 600 000 pamphlets at all restitution promotional events, that is, rallies, workshops, taxi rank promotions, churches, schools, community halls and during the door to door.

The poster campaign ensured that people were mounted on walls of prominent trading stores within urban and rural areas throughout the country. These posters included the toll free number. (700 trading stores).

T-shirts and caps were also given out at every possible event and the toll free number was also on the t-shirts. The message was clear – "Restitution – Stake Your Claim."

Taxi rank promotions – the taxi ranks were selected on the basis of the volume of people that go through the taxi rank everyday. Taxi ranks in all Provinces were visited and pamphlets were distributed.

Workshops to provide people with the opportunity to understand through discussion the objectives of restitution and process that has been chosen to effect restitution were held in urban and rural areas countrywide. Workshops were held for leaders of various structures of civil society, to elicit support for restitution and in educating the public about their land rights. These included people at the various levels and in structures of Government, chiefs, church leaders, leaders of political organizations, trade union leaders and others. In addition, leaders were supplied with posters and pamphlets to assist in promoting and communicating the aims and objectives of the campaign. Potential claimants also attended these workshops. The workshops were mainly held over weekends to target most people. (More than 600 workshops were held for communities around the country).

The 0800 toll free number and the Call Centre (Help desk) was a critical part of the campaign. The toll free number was accessible to all and was cited in every medium used in the campaign. A team of 4 persons was trained in telephone management skills and the subject matter of the campaign "Stake Your Claim." The team was multi-lingual and could therefore assist callers in any language of their choice. The toll free Call Centre was operational till 31 December 1998. More than 2 000 calls were received.

Newspaper adverts – one of the late additions to the campaign as more funds became available. These included placing adverts explaining the restitution process, announcements of workshops, event based adverts, etc.

Special events for example, Heritage Day and Women’s Day were used to promote the campaign through out the country and to distribute pamphlets and posters as well as T. shirts.

The Awareness Campaign in Gauteng

Many activities took place in the following areas: workshops were held in Alexandra, Vereening, Diepkloof and Brakpan.

Areas visited included Dobsonville, Meadowlands, Mohlakeng, Munsieville, Krugersdorp, Katlehong, Vosloorus, Thokoza, Kwa Thema, Springs, Wattville, Benoni, Daveyton, Brakpan, Duduza, Springs, East, North West and South of Gauteng including Atterridgeville, Saulsville, and Hammanskraal.

Newspaper: 23 Adverts in November 1998 to December 1998.

Taxi rank promotions in Pretoria Bloed Street, Alexandria, Baragwanath, and Roodepoort.

It should be noted that various State Departments and Local Municipalities made their offices available for claimants to lodge their claims and for officials from the Land Claims Commission to work from. In Gauteng, for example, the provincial Department of Housing made their offices available for this purpose. In Diepkloof Soweto, the Local municipality also made offices available. The Commission has accepted all the restitution claims, which were lodged with various Government offices. Claimant committees also submitted restitution claims in large numbers on behalf of other people and those claims were also accepted.

How Gauteng Province dealt with late lodgement

The office position has always been clear in as far as late lodgement of claims is concerned and this position emanates from the very same provisions of the Land Restitution Act, which states clearly that the closing date for lodgement is 31 December 1998. This is the message that has been communicated to the late claimants since the closing date.

The claimants have always been informed (in writing and by word of mouth) that the office does not have the necessary powers (including amending the Act) to decide whether or not to re-open the process of Lodgement. However, Parliament as the legislative body has those powers to make such a decision. Furthermore, late claimants were advised on other land reform programmes available within the Department that could be accessed in order to improve or better their living conditions.

Sophiatown, Alberton, Pageview, Lady Selborne, Eastwood, Alexandra, Beenoni, Eastern and Western Native Township, Germiston, Brakpan, Top location, Meyerton, Mooiplaats, Wallmannsthal, and Roodepoort are areas where late claims have been received from database of late claims.

The office advised the Gauteng Land Claims Committee to take up the matter with the NCOP Select Committee and Portfolio Committee as they would be the applicable bodies to deal with the matter.

Conclusion

As a result of the "Stake Your Claim Awareness Campaign", the number of claims lodged increased from 33 000 in March 1998 to 68 000 by 31 December 1998.

Although the campaign had been undertaken, many people did not believe that the restitution process would deliver their land back. It was only after the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights started delivering on its promise of giving back the land, that people realized the seriousness of the process. Subsequently, many of those who did not submit claims are now wishing to do so, unfortunately after the cut-off date for lodgement of claims.

There are critical issues and implications that should be considered in any consideration process for the re-opening of the lodgement process.

Most of the urban claimants have opted for financial compensation, which is one of the remedies/forms of redress available in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act. Most of the critics of the restitution especially NGOs such as National Land Committee (NLC) and research institutions like PLAAS, are opposed to financial compensation because they believe it undermines the intention of Government to change the skewed ownership of land by whites (87:13% debate). Those urban claimants who want re-opening have already indicated that they would want to be given the same financial compensation that has been given already to the successful urban claimants.

Financial compensation has led to a lot of family disputes, fraudulent claims by wrongful claimants, abuse of restitution awards on unproductive expenditure, which do not prioritize sustainable livelihoods.

More than R 4 billion has been spent towards the 59 345 claims settled to date, of which were 52 809 urban and 6 536 rural. The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights need R 13 billion to resolve the outstanding 20 351 claims. It is common knowledge that about 6 million people were victims of racial dispossession in the country but only 10% of dispossessed persons lodged a restitution claims. Most of the people did not lodge claims for patriotic reasons such as "I cannot claim against my own government that I have fought for so long." Others simply "did not believe that the return of land would be possible," yet others simply overlooked the campaign. But now most people have seen that "this thing is real." If one were to re-open there would be a flood of new claims. The nation would need to provide much more resources for those new claims.

One of the main reasons for the cut-off dates for both restitution (19 June 1913 and 31 December 1998) and redistribution (30% of agricultural land redistributed by the year 2015) was to ensure certainty for economic development in the country. In restitution, for example, once a claim is lodged and gazetted, commercial banks become reluctant to approve any loan for claimed land. The resolution of the claim lifts up that uncertainty; and

Land Claims that are dismissed may be referred, in terms of section 6(2)(b) of the Restitution of Land Rights Act to other land reform programmes (redistribution/LRAD or tenure reform) for access to land. This is in line with the vision of government to redistribute more land and thus address the skewed land ownership in South Africa.

Media briefing

The following points were released at a joint media briefing, which took place after the meeting:

"We have responded to the request of the Guateng Land Restitution Claims Committee to come and listen to their request for re-opening of lodgement of land claims.

As the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs, we have listened attentively to the request.

We shall go back to Parliament in Cape Town and deliberate as a full Portfolio Committee on the request.

We are encouraging people to consider other land reform programmes, in order to address the question of skewed ownership in South Africa.

Gauteng Land Restitution Claims Committee appreciates the support from Provincial Government, Executive Mayor and the Land Claims Commission. Gauteng Land Claims Committee is also grateful to the Portfolio Committee for coming all the way from Cape Town."

Appreciation

The Committee expressed appreciation for passion and enthusiasm shown by Gauteng committee for engaging Parliament on the critical matters such as the land question. Further noted that this was the way communities should handle their problems, rather than running to the media without consulting relevant institutions.

Recommendations

The Committee recommended that:

The issue of amending the Restitution of Land Rights Act (Act No. 22 of 1994) in order to reopen the lodgement of restitution claims could be covered by the upcoming National Land Summit scheduled for late July 2005;

Secondly, one of the strategic objective of the summit is to address the concerns and fears of the previously disadvantaged and current land owners from a national perspective and the Portfolio Committee is of the view this would ensure that South Africans participate fully in the land and agrarian processes; and

In the interim, people who were left out by the cut-off date are encouraged to make use of other Land Reform Programmes, such as, the redistribution and land tenure programmes, which are available in the Department of Land Affairs.

Report to be considered.