No more land claims - minister
2004-02-18 22:25
Pretoria - The process of land claims for restitution purposes will not be resumed anywhere in the country, says land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya.
The possibility was under consideration earlier, as a special exception, to allow 1 000 claims in the Eastern Cape that had been overlooked because of an administrative error.
The claims affect about 500 000 people in the former Ciskei and 1.5 million in Transkei.
Agricultural organisations welcomed this decision on Wednesday.
Gwanya said Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza had said it was impossible to allow land claims again.
Claims for restitution had been registered from 1995, with a deadline of December 1998, by which time 79 649 claims had been made countrywide. About 47 000 claims have been processed.
To resume the claims process would need changes to the Restitution Act.
Gwanya said the Eastern Cape MEC for land affairs was looking at alternative ways to help those in the province who had not registered their claims.
They might be given land under the department of land affairs' land redistribution programme.