Discussions to extend the date for lodging claims for the restitution of land were held in Vereeniging on Thursday. The committee of rural development met with community members to discuss the period in which people will have time to lodge there claims to get their land back.
The Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act was sought to reopen the lodgement of land claims until the 30, June 2019.
The Constitutional Court found this unreasonable.
The bill seeks to re-open the lodgement of land claims until five years after the start of the restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill 2017.
Committee of Rural Development, Nosilivere Magadla says, “Here as the portfolio committee we have come for restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill which was passed by parliament in 2014 and then signed by the president to be an act in 2014. But unfortunately the court intervened and interdicted the commissioner saying that the Act is invalid. Parliament gave us 24 months to re-enact this bill so it can become an act again.”
The committee must finalise old claims that were lodged in 1998 before they can start dealing with new claims.
“The Ad hoc committee is going around the country and taking out all the views and ideas regarding sections 25. As parliament we can’t pass anything without consulting the public, since there is expropriation of land without compensation,” says Magadla.
Some of the community members shared their views with the committee, “I used to want compensation for the land taken from my grandparents in a place called ‘top Location’. Now all I want is the land that my grandparents owned back. I want land that will feed me. So my children and I can go live there.”
Another community member says they are prepared to die for the land.
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