THE Eastern Cape regional Land Claims Commission (RLCC) has adopted a five-year-plan to speed up land claims in the province, RLCC regional commissioner Tozi Gwanya said over the weekend. Addressing settlement celebrations of the Gwiji family who were dispossessed of their farm Blydefontein in 1953 under the Group Areas Act, Gwanya said the department would try to settle about 2_000 claims a year in the Eastern Cape. Of the 9_200 claims lodged with the RLCC about 20% were rural-based. The Gwiji claim was the first Transkei claim to be settled. Chief Land Claims Commission advocate Wallace Mgoqi said that in the past financial year 3860 claims had been settled in the Western Cape, 3382 in Gauteng, 2898 in the Eastern Cape, 419 in KwaZulu-Natal, 409 in the Northern Cape, 405 in the Free State, 330 in the Northern Province, and three in Mpumalanga.