Tag: restitution

Mugabe toys with ‘land rentals’ to pay white farmers

An announcement from President Robert Mugabe’s government that it will soon start collecting land rentals from new black farmers to help compensate white farmers whose land was taken from them could be “very good”, the director of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) said on Saturday.

Hendrik Olivier told News24: “If there is a concrete realisation from the government that they want to sit around the table with white farmers [and discuss compensation], this would be very good and would boost the confidence of the farmers.”

The decision to extract rentals from the new farmers, almost certainly an effort to restore confidence in Zimbabwe internationally and encourage desperately-needed foreign investment, was announced by Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora on Thursday, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Saturday.

The minister said the move was approved by Mugabe’s cabinet last week.

Olivier said that there were “lots of figures floating around” as to the total amount of compensation owed to white farmers who have lost their land under Mugabe’s controversial land reforms, which were launched in 2000. He agreed that it was “most probably” around $10bn, a figure that has been previously cited.

The CFU director said some dispossessed white farmers needed “very much” to be paid back.

Source: News24

ANC approves land expropriation bill

The government moved closer to passing a law that would allow the state to expropriate white-owned land and assets on Thursday.

The cabinet approved the draft land expropriation bill and will now wait for parliament to approve it.

The bill seeks to replace legislation dating from 1975 and “align the overarching legislation governing the expropriation of property to the values and provisions of the constitution”.

The government tried in 2008 to pass a land and assets expropriation law but it was withdrawn after its constitutionality was questioned.

Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin said the current version of the law recognised the jurisdiction of the courts in determining compensation.

The bill also gives other organs of state powers to expropriate, but the government can table limitations once the bill is approved.

The government also approved the establishment of a state-owned property firm that will manage the state’s property portfolio, which is valued at over R530-billion.

Cronin said the National Treasury will also be approached to help capitalise the new State Property Management Agency to the level where it can employ experts such as property lawyers, economists and actuaries and offer them salaries that match those offered in the private sector.

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi said the agency would be the flagship of his department.

He said the agency would be the largest property company in the country.

The agency was established to enhance the management of land, government buildings and other property assets , including the property portfolios of municipalities and provincial governments, Nxesi said.

Source: timeslive.co.za

Zulus make largest land claim

King Goodwill Zwelithini and other traditional leaders are compiling a multi-billion rand land claim that could be South Africa’s largest to date, according to report.

“From what we have gathered thus far…[the area] goes outside the boundaries of the [KwaZulu-Natal] province to the Eastern Cape, Free State and part of Mpumulanga,” said Judge Jerome Ngwenya, chair of the Ingonyama Trust, which would help with the claim the City Press reported on Sunday.

Ngwenya said research was underway to determine the exact extent of the claim. The claim would cover land taken from 1838 onwards.

However, according to land claims legislation only land taken away since 1913 could be claimed, which could still make the claim “very substantial”.

Ngwenya said the claim was not aimed at uprooting people or causing dispossession.

“Where restitution is no longer feasible there must be an alternative in the form of royalties or financial compensation.”

Zwelithini and other traditional leaders have been attending workshops to compile the claim.

The deadline for submission has been set for March 2015.

Source: TimesLive

Land claims process may be reopened

The land claims process closed 14 years ago will be reopened.

The Star newspaper reported that according to the draft Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill published last week the new deadline for claims would be December 31, 2018.

The previous deadline was December 31, 1998.

If the bill became law, it would allow those who missed the first deadline to claim, opening the door to new claims for those dispossessed by homelands betterment schemes, including white people, The Star reported.

It would also allow people to lodge claims that were previously refused.

The land claims process was for those who were dispossessed of a land right after June 13, 1913 as a result of past racially discriminatory laws.

An explanatory memo attached to the draft bill said the previous restitution programme had “a number of problems” and certain categories of people who lost their rights due to colonial and apartheid laws had not been included.

These were people who could not lodge claims before the December 1998 deadline, and those who were dispossessed before 1913.

Others were dispossesses through betterment planning schemes but were not allowed to lodge claims. – SAPA