Hon Speaker, the DA participated fully in the oversight visits to carry the resolution passed by Parliament. The DA supports initiatives aimed at correcting South Africa's history of a racially based system of land ownership. The emotions attached to land and land ownership in intergroup relationships contribute to the complexity of the land debate. The DA supports a land reform process that achieves redress in the rural communities, that promotes economic inclusion to lift people out of poverty, and supports growth and prosperity. This is a constitutional imperative in terms of section 25(5), (6) and (7) of the Constitution.
The ad hoc committee asked for submissions from affected communities, groups, institutions and private individuals. They all made presentations. The committee then visited provinces and communities which were deeply affected to hear and see how restitution of land rights was conducted through oversight. There were serious issues discovered on the ground. The issue of conflict between the traditional leaders and the communal property associations, CPAs, poses a serious threat to the land restitution programme.
The traditional leaders see themselves as the sole custodians of communal land. They do not want to work with or recognise the communal property associations and their right to exist. Some of the traditional leaders want land claims to be transferred to their trust. The CPAs are created through an Act of Parliament and therefore they have the right to exist and serve the claimants and the beneficiaries.
Some of the claimants who formed the CPAs feel that the CPAs are no longer representing their needs but serving themselves. These conflicts need to be addressed. There is also an issue of strategic partners appointed by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to help successful claimants and CPAs. The strategic partners are not actually investing money into the project; instead they bankrupt it.
There are farms which collapsed due to huge loans taken by strategic partners. Evidently, support for CPAs is a vital necessity. The conflict within the CPAs and with the traditional leaders arises from a lack of understanding of their respective roles. The CPAs and claimants are not allowed to check the books under the strategic partners. Some farms are not utilised due to conflicts.
It is not all doom and gloom as there are CPAs that are starting to invest their profit in public goods. The Makuleke CPA built schools and dividends were shared, for example, and the Ravele CPA in Levubu has set up a bursary scheme. The project has resulted in the creation of job opportunities, although in varying degrees due to scales and types of products, profitability and support given to enterprises. The roll-out of the land restitution programme remains a concern.
The restitution of land rights programme does not update claimants who lodged their claims prior to 31 December 2008. The cost of restitution has been high due to the cost of land acquisition. Since the inception of restitution in 1995, the state have paid over R15 billion for the land purchased and R7,5 billion for financial compensation.
The claimants are now worried that lodging new claims will cause serious conflicts. The committee observed that restitution of land rights is a complex programme which depends on the ability of government officials to negotiate settlements with parties. Claimants also expressed frustrations at the lack of postsettlement support from the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights. Communal land tenure security is threatening the livelihood of communities across South Africa. People in the rural areas feel that their rights to own property are being threatened by traditional leaders.
Traditional leaders don't want people to have title deeds; they want to have title deeds on behalf of the people. Women and vulnerable people are denied their constitutional rights to own private property. They also want to have rights to own land and use their land claimed of their ancestors to farm and produce goods. Furthermore, some boundaries of the apartheid era, enforced through Bantustans, still exist while poverty remains high. While we welcome some of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programmes, CRDPs, aimed at alleviating and eliminating poverty, there is much to be done, to bring about the desired results.
Tenure security reform, especially the communal land tenure, has been the most difficult and slowest programme of land reform. Section 25(6) of the Constitution provides:
A person or community whose tenure of land is legally insecure as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices is entitled, to the extent provided by an Act of Parliament, either to tenure which is legally secure or to comparable redress.
Communal land tenure security areas constitute 13% designated to black people in terms of the 1913 and 1936 Land Acts. No less than a third of the country's population live in these areas that are characterised by overpopulation. [Time expired.]