45% labour tenant claims left

Dept’s database incomplete and it is criticised for tackling the issue erroneously.

- Daniel Steyn

More than two decafter tens thousands ades of of labour tenants lodged land claims, only a little more than half of these claims have been finalised.

Labour tenants are farm workers who, under apartheid, were given access to land instead of monetary payment.

The system came to be regarded as unjust, and the 1996 Labour Tenants Act guaranteed title deeds for people who were labour tenants.

The deadline to submit claims ended in 2001. Since then, the department of land reform and rural development has been responsible for processing claims and giving title deeds to the rightful beneficiaries.

The latest figures presented in parliament by department officials in September show that only 11 422 of 20 523 claims (55%) of all the claims in the department's database have been finalised.

This is a small advance on 2022, at which stage 10.992 claims had been finalised. The department's target for 2024-25 is to resolve a further 268 claims. At that rate, it will take longer than 30 years before all cases are resolved.

A lack of capacity within the department and claims getting lost have been blamed for underperforming since 2002.