JZ’s land claim proposal unwise
I was surprised to read that in President Jacob Zuma’s recent address to the National House of Traditional Leaders, he proposed pushing the land claim cut-off date further back – from the current 1913, to some time in the 1800s.
I wasn’t surprised at this as a “vote-getting” strategy, but I was surprised from a purely practical point of view. Why offer people something that is highly unlikely to be delivered in the short to medium term, if at all?
I’ve researched this matter and ascertained the following:
There were some 80 000 land claims lodged before the first deadline in 1998.
Some 60 000 of these claims have been finalised at a cost of about R30.8 billion.
The second round of claims was opened in July, 2014 and closes in 2019.
Some 120 000 new claims were lodged by the end of last year.
It’s clear that while the government enjoys “beating the drum” on land reform/restitution, it’s not intending to spend much on it – only 0.4 percent of the 2016/17 National Budget is devoted to this.
In fact, the amounts spent on land reform/restitution have been declining over the past four fiscal years.
It wouldn’t be because the government doesn’t want to spend more money on this, it is because it cannot afford to do so, given priority spending in other areas.
Interestingly, the government spends more on administering the land reform/restitution process than on the land claims themselves (in the 2016/17 Budget, R5.93bn was allocated to administration costs and R4.55bn to settling claims).
Apparently, at the rate of current spending, it’ll take the government 144 years to settle the outstanding and new claims.
Given this scenario, I fail to see the wisdom in encouraging more land claims.
Government cannot settle these in the short to medium term and I fear this could lead to heightened frustrations and the distinct possibility of Zimbabwe-style “land-grabs”.
Heaven forbid this should start happening.
In conclusion, I cannot help but wonder what land claims Britain could be faced with. Since the days of those who built Stonehenge, there’ve been a multitude of conquerors that have murdered, raped and pillaged the locals… and also owned/occupied land.
Romans, Celts, AngloSaxons, Danish/Norwegian Vikings and the Normans could all potentially lodge land claims – now that would take some working out. ROBIN MUN-GAVIN
Berea