settlements
Barry Streek
The government has swiftly settled substantial land claims in the Southern Cape in the wake of threats by local residents to carry out land invasions. On Saturday Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza will restore land to 1 100 coloured and black households in Knysna at a cost of about R22-million – or R21 000 a household. On Sunday an agreement will be signed with the Slang River community near Swellendam in which R1-million compensation will be paid to the coloured community whose 300ha was sold to white farmers by the former House of Representatives. Both settlements follow a deal on June 17 with 968 claimants who used to live on the Dysselsdorp farm, 30km east of Oudtshoorn. The deal was signed after five years of negotiation in a R24,98-million plan to restore the land and develop it with housing, agriculture, commonage land and financial compensation. In April the Mail & Guardian reported how an organisation representing 3 000 households in the Southern Cape – who claimed they were stripped of their land during apartheid – warned President Thabo Mbeki that they were considering embarking on land invasions because of the government’s delays in dealing with their claims.
Meanwhile, November 25 has provisionally been set aside for the first stage of what will be one of the most significant land restitution agreements since 1994: the restoration of the District Six area in Cape Town to its original coloured inhabitants or the payment of compensation. Didiza has not yet confirmed the date, but the Commission for the Restoration of Land Rights wants to sign a R42-million agreement with 1 700 former tenant households.
Wallace Mgoqi, the chief land claims commissioner, told a National Council of Provinces committee this week that by last Friday 6 534 of the 63 455 claims received by the commission had been settled, a sharp increase on the 3 916 claims that had been settled by the end of March. He said the commission had made “major strides” in settling claims, but it was severely restricted by having only 194 members of staff, and this was delaying the pace of validating and reaching agreement on the claims.