Land restitution a ‘political football’

ANC stalwart and Western Cape regional land claims commissioner Beverley Jansen has broken her silence on land starvation in the province, saying that she has tried unsuccessfully for six years to persuade the provincial transport and public works department to release state land for restitution.

‘We’ve become the political football in the Western Cape and we are still begging for land,” Jansen said. ANC infighting in the Western Cape has been rife with allegations of provincial tender irregularities, several related to the transport department.

And although the Cape metro council, Southern Cape municipalities and the provincial housing department has signed over land for restitution, a clearly frustrated Jansen said the commission was tired of taking the blame for ‘broken promises”.

‘The former MEC, Marius Fransman, agreed last year to release nine properties owned by the transport department and a cabinet memo had been drafted regarding the release. But it was never taken to cabinet for a signature.

The properties were never released to us,” said Jansen. ‘The claimant’s right to land has been violated,” she said. Among the properties pledged by Fransman were those in Constantia, Pelican Park, Retreat, Bellville, Milnerton and Paarl.

They would have been used to resettle land claimants who have been waiting since 1994 to resettle areas from which they were evicted under the Group Areas Act. Many claimants, including 78-year-old Constantia claimant Christiaan Petersen, who before his death, accused the regional land claims commission of incompetence”, have died before their claims were settled.

Another blow for land claimants was the former ANC Western Cape government’s free transfer of prime land to the new state Housing Development Agency a day before the April elections.

Several Constantia properties, and the sprawling Porter Estate bordering Tokai Forest, earmarked for restitution, were quietly transferred. ‘We were in discussions about land, so I can’t understand why the transport department didn’t consult the commission about the transfer,” said Jansen.

New provincial premier Helen Zille accused the former ANC provincial government of ‘asset-stripping” and transferring land worth R500-million in secret.

The Mail & Guardian revealed that the transfer was stalled because Zille’s government is refusing to hand over the title deeds for the more than 1 000ha of land, arguing that the transaction is invalid. Jansen said the impasse was demoralising her staff.

The commission will close its doors in 2011 or 2012. ‘There are 1 364 claims outstanding in the Western Cape and, of these, 570 will probably end up being resettled on land while the rest will want financial compensation,” she said.

Fransman confirmed he had signed a ‘memorandum of understanding” with former national housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu over the transfer of provincial land on June 28 last year.

‘The matter was taken out of my hands after I was moved to health in July,” said Fransman. ‘The idea was to ensure that all relevant departments work together to ensure infrastructure is available and the land properly developed, which, in the case of many land claimants, has not happened.”

Fransman’s successor, Kholeka Mqulwana, signed over the land in an ‘alienation of ownership” agreement with Taffy Adler, chief executive of theHousing Development Agency, on May 21 this year.

The new provincial transport minister, Robin Carlisle, said the transfer of the land from province to the Housing Development Agency was still in dispute and the outcome was ‘unpredictable”. ‘According to the Land Claims Commission, most land claims have been finalised.

Aside from the legality, it is morally outrageous. Many claimants have already died,” said Carlisle. ‘I will do everything in my power to ensure that this matter is resolved in my term of office, subject to assistance from the Land Claims Commission and changes of attitudes in some of the gatekeepers.”