”The Land Summit” i Sydafrika

Af Torben Estermann, Woza 4/2005

På ”The Land Summit” i Sydafrika blev der vedtaget krav om store forandringer i Sydafrikas jordreform. Civilsamfundsorganisationer involveret i jordreformen - dog uden støtte fra de hvide farmere i AgriSA - vedtog at arbejde for:
- en afskaffelse af ”villig-sælger-villig-køber” klausulen
- en proaktiv involvering af staten i opkøb af jord, med brug af ekspropriering om nødvendigt
- et stop for tvangsfjernelse af landarbejderfamilier bosat på farme
- et tillæg til forfatningen om ”social ansvarlighed” for at beskytte dem, som bor på underudnyttede jorde
- en behovsstyret folkelig tilgang til udpegelsen af jord og farme for ekspropriation, og
- for en proaktiv statslig rolle i sikringen af økonomisk og teknisk støtte til folk, som har fået tildelt jord under jordreformen.

Hvis disse resolutioner bliver iværksat vil det sætte jordreformprocessen op i et højere gear, hvilket var formålet med at afholde ”the land summit”. Det er civilsamfundsorganisationernes håb, at der skrides til handling nu, for at sikre en langsigtet vækst og stabilitet i Sydafrika.

På samme tid er det nødvendigt at sikre, at jordreformen undgår kaos og forstyrrelse af produktionen.
Som ministeren for jordreformen Didiza pointerede "På trods af de farer, som en omfattende jordreform kan udgøre for Sydafrika, er det vigtigt at huske på at en sådan kan bidrag til reel forsoning i Sydafrika, fornyet udvikling og forbedret levevilkår for de fattige, vi har alle en forpligtigelse til at sørge for at jordreformen bliver en succes."

Jordreformmødet giver civilsamfunds organisationerne håb om at regeringen vil sikre en gennemsigtig og deltagerstyret proces, og håb om at den vil handle resolut. Det er værd at bemærke at ingen af de mange regeringsembedsmænd på noget tidspunkt udtalte sig skeptisk om resolutionerne, hvilket giver fornyet håb til de mange lokalsamfund om en konsekvent og resolut handlen fra regeringens side.

-------------------------------------
Denne udtalelse er udstedt på baggrund af de resultater fra Jordreformsmødet i Sydafrika oktober 2005, nåede frem til.
Alliancen af jord og landbrugsreforms organisationer (ALARM) består af mere end tyve organisationer.

85 LAND CLAIMS LEFT IN GAUTENG, NWEST
PRETORIA 26 September 2007 Sapa

Only four land claims in Gauteng and 81 in North West remain to be resolved before the March 2008 deadline for settling all restitution claims in the country.

Regional Land Claims Commissioner for Gauteng and North West, Tumi Seboka, said on Wednesday.

In Gauteng a total of 11,975 claims were received, of which four are still to be settled, and in North West 1138 of the 1219 claims have been resolved.

"While there is remarkable progress in the settlement of land claims we still have to deal with complicated issues of development, untraceable claimants, changing settlement options, community and family disputes, costly and lengthy litigation, as well as phase
claims," Seboka said.

The commission reckoned less than two percent of the outstanding claims would not be settled by the deadline, she said.
 

RESTITUTION PROCESS A BIG SUCCESS: GWANYA

PRETORIA 21 November 2007 Sapa

SA's land restitution is a big success story acting director general of land affairs Tozi Gwanya said on Wednesday.

Five thousand claims out of the 79,696 lodged still needed to be settled, of which about a third would not be concluded before next year's deadline for completion, Gwanya said at a media briefing of directors general in government's social cluster.

He said the 1,500 claims that would remain were "residual" and included those claims at the Land Claims Court and those where there were conflicts among traditional leaders.

"You cannot tell the judge that he must settle these claims tomorrow," he said, referring to the claims before the court, most of which were contested on a validity basis.

The claims where traditional leaders were fighting over their rights to the land, would be solved by the commission on traditional leadership disputes and claims.

This process, Gwanya said, might take even longer than the "two to three" years the Land Claims Court would take to finalise the cases before it.

However, he said the restitution process could be considered a big
success.

"As a country, if we are left with one or two percent, that would be a big success story," Gwanya said.