Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – Black families who were removed from their land during the Apartheid era in South Africa can now seek redress in terms of a claims process which was reopened this week for those who failed to meet earlier deadlines.
President Jacob Zuma has assented to the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act, which among other things amends the cut-off date for lodging a land claim.
About 80,000 land restitution claims were lodged by the 1998 deadline and it is estimated there are up to five times as many valid cases that can be brought by victims of apartheid-era forced removals.
“The Act now provides for the re-opening of the lodgement of land claims by those who missed the 31 December 1998 deadline,” the presidency said in a statement.
The process will run for five years starting immediately.
The programme has compensated people or families who were forcibly driven from their land under the 1913 Natives’ Land Act, which set aside the vast majority of arable land for Whites.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said the move was a victory for millions of South Africans dispossessed of their land as a result of past discrimination.
Party spokesman Zizi Kodwa said the enactment of these bills “are giving expression to the urgency for comprehensive land reform expressed by the people of South Africa”.
However, the Economic Freedom Fighters has rejected the reopening of land claims.
In a statement, it says the Restitution Act “has failed dismally in the past 20 years to restore stolen land to the people”.
“The restitution processes also distorts the history of land dispossession by pegging 1913 as the main point of land dispossession instead of 1652 (when the first Dutch settlers arrived),” it added.
Two weeks ago, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti told Parliament that black South Africans, who were left landless because of the Apartheid policies, have been “bending over backwards” to resolve the impasse and are now growing impatient.
Nkwinti is proposing land reform initiatives which, if enacted, would see farmers giving half of their land to their workers.
Photo: Green Media
