What do ordinary rural people — as opposed to loud-mouthed traditional leaders — think of the draft Communal Land Rights Bill? They seem to like it, but worry about how it will be implemented.
That was the message of a weekend indaba in Leeufontein township, Limpopo, where MPs and councillors met community representatives from the Groblersdal and Greater Marble Hall area to record their responses.
Funded by the National Land Committee (NLC) and the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas), the Leeufontein gathering was called after Parliament’s land committee asked MPs to sound out their constituents.
The NLC and Plaas will compile a report for the parliamentary committee after 10 meetings have been held throughout Limpopo.
African National Congress MP for Sekhukhune Lydia Kompe-Ngwenya said the communities appeared to appreciate the government’s moves to recognise their land rights.
However, they were concerned that the local land administration board would ”be loaded with all this work without being paid”, she said. The government paid the chiefs to administer land, while board representatives were expected to do a full-time job for free.
Groblersdal councillor Langa Kabini confirmed that communities wanted ”title to their own land, free of control by the chiefs”. They had expressed concerns at the time — up to a year — it would take to transfer tenure rights to individuals.
They also feared the government would hand over land without providing support for land-administration functions.
The meeting set up a coordinating committee to stage meetings elsewhere in the province. The views of traditional leaders will also be sounded.