At least 40 people who were given land or who were compensated under government’s land restitution programme might have made fraudulent land claims.
Regional land claims commissioner for Gauteng and North West, Tumi Seboka, said on Wednesday that the commission on restitution of land claims had received complaints about alleged fraudulent claims in the Payneville restitution project.
Seboka said it seemed about 40 of the claimants in the project near Springs in Ekhuruleni, which was settled in 2000, might not have qualified for restitution.
”It seem there were misrepresentation by claimants in their affidavits, [claiming to be] rightful claimants as people who were dispossessed, when in fact it might be established that they were not the original owners of the stands or property at the time of dispossession,” she said.
The Payneville project was one of the government’s premier restitution projects which saw people being offered an option of a serviced site in a housing development or financial compensation.
The rightful claimants were forcibly removed from the area by apartheid authorities in the 1950s and 1960s and relocated to the KwaThema township.
Seboka said the matter would be referred to the police.
”The commission has concluded to take legal action and engage relevant security agencies to conduct forensic investigation and take appropriate legal action against those who would be found to have deliberately and intentionally defrauded government,” she said.
Seboka hoped the case could be finalised before the end of December this year. – Sapa