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Companies battle land claims
16/01/2008 17:29 - (SA)
Sydney Masinga
Nelspruit - More than half the land belonging to or managed by three forestry companies in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal are under land claim.
The land belongs or is managed by the Mondi Group, Komatiland Forests and Sappi.
"I know that the commissioner is currently in the process of discussions with the companies over the fate of the land and that's all I can tell you now," said Sonto Shabangu, spokesperson for Mpumalanga land claims commissioner Peter Mhangwani.
Mondi estimates that about 48% of their 375 000-hectare land holdings in the three provinces is under land claim. The claimed land is worth R364m.
Land claims administrator at Mondi Group, Lindiwe Sithole, said an additional 86 000 hectares of Mondi's forestry operations in KwaZulu-Natal were leased to Mondi Business Paper, and that one third of the leased land may also be under claim.
She said the amount of land under claim keeps changing, however, as some are settled or others are dismissed.
"We are currently dealing with the land claims commission offices over our land holdings in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga," said Sithole.
Sithole said that the company might negotiate to lease the land back from the claimants so that operations can continue.
Group head of corporate affairs at Sappi, Andre Oberholzer, said Sappi faced 26 formal land claims in Mpumalanga alone. There are another 32 claims on plantations in KwaZulu-Natal.
"About 17.5% of the company's 540 000 hectares of forestry land is under claim, and currently three claims covering about 2 400 hectares are being finalised," said Oberholzer on Tuesday.
Spokesperson for Komatiland Forests, Leslie Mudimeli, said 75% of their 125 000 hectares of land in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal are currently under land claim.
Trying to find a compromise
"The majority of the land that has been claimed is in Mpumalanga. The difference between us, Mondi and Sappi, is that they own their land and we don't. We only lease it from government and are only managers of the land," said Mudimeli.
He said Komatiland was in negotiations with both the land claims commission and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to find a compromise on how the land can benefit both the claimants and the company.
According to the National Centre for Development and Enterprise, only four percent of land claimed in South Africa since 1994 has been returned to its rightful owners.
In the 2007/08 national budget, Trevor Manuel stated that the budget for land restitution would be increased from R2.3bn to R3.5bn.
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