Minister of Rural Development & Land Reform Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has said it would not be physically feasible to restore the claimed Centurion land to the claimants because the land in question had been developed. According to a Pretoria News report, the Minister added residents of the affected areas should therefore not fear losing their properties to the claimants should the land claim be successful.

She said the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights would have to look at options of alternative land or financial compensation or any other redress which was feasible in the circumstances as provided for in law.

Nkoana-Mashabane said in compliance with the Restitution of Land Rights Act – read with rules governing the procedure on land claims – a meeting was held in December 2018 ‘to provide a formal notice and guidance to current landowners and interested stakeholders on the laws and procedures applicable when a land claim is lodged upon particular properties’.

The Act, she said, enjoined the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights to avoid major social disruptions while settling land claims. As reported in Legalbrief Today, a claim was lodged in 1998 by Kleinbooi Mahlangu through the commission on behalf of 39 families who were allegedly forcefully removed from the land in the 1960s.

The Minister said there was no reason for property owners to be alarmed.

‘They should remain assured that as a responsible government, we will ensure that a just and equitable option to settle the land claims will be sought and their properties will not be affected at all; there is no need to be alarmed and to engage lawyers and structures like AfriForum as that is totally unwarranted and will be a waste of their hard earned monies,’ she said.

Full Pretoria News report

See ‘AfriForum to help 2 000 threatened Pretoria residents’