Anne Eveleth
Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom rejected reports=20 that legislation he proposed to Cabinet this week was=20 aimed at privatising tribal land rights, and said the=20 draft Bill would instead provide legal security to=20 millions of impoverished black rural South Africans=20 living on tribal land in the former homelands.
Hanekom said the proposed Interim Protection of=20 Informal Land Rights Act would protect informal rural=20 land rights from the threat of unauthorised sales to=20 developers and holiday-makers.
“These communities currently have no clear legal right=20 to prevent individuals from selling off their grazing=20 land to developers, or to holiday-makers … The Bill=20 is intended to provide a defensive mechanism against=20 such transactions,” said Hanekom.
Hanekom said the Bill was not intended to prevent=20 development or other transfers from taking place, but=20 would ensure that people with informal rights were=20 given their proper status as stakeholders in such=20
“It will protect people who occupy land as if they are=20 owners, who have invested in the land on the basis of=20 an assumption of permanent rights, but it will not=20 apply to land tenants or temporary tenants,” Hanekom=20
Without such legislation, the unlawful transactions now=20 taking place would continue, with the people=20 responsible only learning their actions were illegal=20 years down the road after lengthy litigation, he added.
The proposed Bill is only an interim measure, intended=20 to fill the legal vacuum left by the repeal of=20 apartheid land legislation until proper consultation=20 and research on an appropriate tenure reform system=20 could be completed. This was a complicated process=20 which could take years to complete, so temporary relief=20 was needed to protect people from dispossession in the=20
Hanekom said the Bill would have to be accompanied by=20 Amendments to the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act=20 No 112 of 1991, which favoured privatisation of land=20 rights over other means of upgrading tenure. “It is=20 necessary to amend the Act in order for it to comply=20 with a policy that security of tenure will be protected=20 under a variety of tenure forms,” he said.
It is understood Hanekom presented the proposed=20 Amendments, as well as a Proposed Communal Property=20 Association Act, to the Cabinet committee on social and=20 administrative affairs on Wednesday.
The Communal Property Association Act would provide a=20 legal mechanism to allow communities which wanted to=20 adopt a communal land tenure system to place their land=20 in a communal trust with secure tenure rights. =20