Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs Mr AB Mphela

1. COMMISSION ON RESTITUTION OF LAND RIGHTS STRATEGIC PLAN 2008/2009 Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs Mr AB Mphela Acting Chief Land Claims Commissioner 7 May 2008

2. STRATEGICDIRECTION State of the Nation Address, 8 February 2008: In 2007, the President reflected on the challenges faced by the Commission towards finalizing outstanding claims and this year he stated: “we continue to address a number of many weaknesses, including … the finalization of the land restitution cases, the support programme for those who acquire land” President Thabo Mbeki

3. STRATEGIC DIRECTION cont… The Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms Lulama Xingwana stated: “The Commission has taken the President’s SONA message of “Business Unusual” very seriously and has committed in its Strategic Planning to settle at least 2585 of the outstanding claims in the remaining period. Operation Gijima remains effective and we will work very hard to reach our target”.

4. STRATEGIC DIRECTION cont… • The Land Summit resolutions of 2005, the 52nd Polokwane Conference of the ruling party and various Makgotla all underlined the importance of post settlement and sustainable development • It is essential to ensure that as we restore land rights, quality of life of beneficiaries is improved • Land reform must be a “spring board for lasting socio-economic development, poverty alleviation and income generation”

5. FINALISING THE OUTSTANDING CLAIMS • The outstanding claims vary in nature from claims on smaller agricultural farms involving cropping, grazing and cattle to highly commercialized farms involving fruit exports, sugar cane operations, forestry, national parks and others • The Commission is faced with many challenges that are in their nature simply hindering the fast tracking of the settlement of the rural claims • There could be a residual of 2 to 3% of these claims which might not be settled by the end of 2008 • The Commission has projected to settle 2585 claims by the end of the 2008 financial year

6. FINALISING THE OUTSTANDING CLAIMS cont… • Challenges towards settling the rural claims, are linked with the second issue in the 2008 SONA, namely “the support programme for those who acquire land” • Ensuring that the necessary support is provided to new land owners for sustainability of the projects, requires careful planning and extensive stakeholder involvement which lead to longer processes

7. FINALISING RURAL CLAIMS INVOLVE • Assisting claimants to structure various affidavits for property descriptions, rightful descendants, document oral evidence, etc. i.e. as in families, claimant communities and land owners • Dispute resolution and mediation • Land price negotiations with current owners • Protracted and costly processes for expropriation where necessary • Institutional capacity for community legal entities (e.g. CPA’s/ Trust) • Facilitation of settlement support

8. RURAL CLAIMS NOT SETTLED BY 2008: • Claims where there are disputes with land owners on the validity of claims, land prices, settlement models and conditions • Claims where there is reluctance to release state land by other government departments and institutions • Claims affected by high land prices and disputes on valuations

9. RURAL CLAIMS NOT SETTLED BY 2008: • Claims that are in the Land Claims Court because of disputes • Claims where there are family/ community disputes • Claims where there are conflict amongst Traditional Leaders and boundary disputes

10. SYNOPSIS: PROGRESS TO DATE • The Commission has settled 74 698 claims benefiting more than 1 million beneficiaries • Financial compensation to the value of R4, 746 billion was committed • Total hectares of 1,994 million have been allocated at a cost of R 7,169 billion • Grants of a total of R2,496 billion were committed towards ensuring sustainability of projects • 4380 rural claims where land has been restored has been settled to date

11. OUTSTANDING CLAIMS

12. CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES • Untraceable claimants • There are currently about 580 claims that involve untraceable claimants

13. COMMUNITY DISPUTES INCLUDING COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES • The Commission is currently dealing with about 240 claims where there are a number of issues that lead to disputes within the communities • Dispute resolution service has been instituted, but where required, political intervention is sought. • The Commission also engages the Department of Land Affairs where there are major disputes in some Communal Property Institutions • The Commission promotes that the Constitutions of the legal entities should be very detailed and all members of the community involved during the negotiations are informed about decisions taken

14. TRADITIONAL LEADERS/ AUTHORITY ISSUES/ BOUNDARY DISPUTES • The Traditional Leaders are not always accepting democratic processes in the restitution process. Land belongs to the community removed and not to the traditional leader. • This leads to conflict between traditional leaders and the members of the community, or between the legal entity and the traditional authority who does not always accept the legal entity as the decision making body • At a recent national indaba, Traditional Institutions committed to working with the Regional Commissioners towards unblocking some of the challenges • There is mutual agreement to involve the Traditional Authorities in disputes

15. DISPUTE WITH REGARD TO VALIDITY OF CLAIMS AND PRICE • Land owners tend to dispute the validity of the claim and/or the price and are not always prepared to negotiate a win win situation • The Commission is currently dealing with about 500 of such cases • 53 Notices of Possible Expropriation has been served • Some land owners use delay tactics where they are simply not prepared to acknowledge that a claim is valid • Ongoing liaison is promoted with the land owners, also via the Agricultural Unions

16. DISPUTE WITH REGARD TO VALIDITY OF CLAIMS AND PRICE cont… • Effort is made to communicate the outcome of judgments like the Popela judgement • Where negotiations fail, the Commission will have no option but to refer to the Land Claims Court • There are currently 105 cases in the Land Claims Court over which the Commission has no control and which would take long to finalize

17. FORESTRY, CONSERVATION AND MINING CLAIMS • These claims involve a number of ‘high-level’ stakeholders • Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) have been signed with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, SAPPI and MONDI • We have just negotiated successfully with Anglo-American in terms of claims with a mining aspect and a MOA will be signed within the next three months • In most cases challenges arise when it comes to implementation which entails real benefit for the claimants, including co-management

18. FORESTRY, CONSERVATION AND MINING CLAIMS cont… • It is not always clear what models would be the best and this can take long to negotiate • Various Task Teams are working on these for all of the categories currently, looking at best practice and precedence in terms of settlements and judgments • This also entails identifying budget implications for settling the more commercial types of claims • Where cooperative governance has to be driven at ministerial level, political intervention will be requested

19. STATE LAND FOR RESTITUTION PURPOSES • The Commission intends to request political intervention at ministerial level in terms of cooperative governance where there remains reluctance to release state land by other government departments and institutions

20. POSSIBLE RISKS OF GIJIMA • Fiscal dumping • Process not judicially correct • Cannot address development issues effectively • Possible compromise on quality • Possible loopholes for fraud • Short circuiting of some processes

21. MANAGING THE RISKS • Clear communication of risk management policies and guidelines to all officials • Continuous training and implementation of function of Directors: Quality Assurance • Effective human resource management • Tight control mechanisms in place • Monitoring performance of implementing agencies • Effective communication • Effective procurement systems • Effective financial management through proper systems, guidelines, training and monitoring

22. SETTLEMENT SUPPORT • The need for settlement support is reiterated by the analysis done on a total of 324 settled claims/ projects with a developmental aspect • Given its prominence in the Constitution, Apex priorities and ANC resolutions, Land and Agrarian reform remains a national priority • Post settlement support has been identified as critical for the success and sustainability of our land reform programme

23. SETTLEMENT SUPPORT cont… • Current land use on 47.2% of the projects is agricultural and on 8.3% it is housing. Other land uses consist of a combination of land uses for example agriculture and forestry forms 8,95% of the projects • The analysis showed that the proposed land use suggested by beneficiaries will diversify from the current land use and a combination of land use was suggested by most beneficiaries in terms of their livelihood strategies

24. SETTLEMENT SUPPORT cont… • The recently developed Settlement Implementation Support Strategy will be implemented to ensure sustainable land settlements • The approach of the strategy is in sync with the Area Based Planning and Pro-Active Land Acquisition Strategy, and is based on the premise that land reform is every body’s business; the State, parastatals, private sector, etc. • The Strategy places land and agrarian reform at the center of local government ensuring that all projects are embedded in the IDPs

25. RESOURCE ALLOCATION

27. CLOSING REMARKS • By end January, significant progress: 74 698 settled of 79 696 lodged • Of those settled, 88% = urban and 12% rural • Majority of urban claimants opted for financial compensation – R4.7 billion at 31 Jan 2008 • Rural – land restoration – R1,99 million ha at 31 Jan 2008 • Projection: total cost for all settled claims = R14.41 billion, • Spending on restitution is expected to decrease from R3.5 billion in 2007/08 to R1.3billion in 2010/11

28. I THANK YOU/ BAIE DANKIE/ KEALEBOGA S25 of the Constitution Provides Restitution for all victims of racial land dispossession