Land Rights Management Facility: briefing by Department of Rural Development & Land Reform

Author: PJ Mnguni

The Land Rights Management Facility (LRMF) is providing assistance to farm workers, communal property institutions and people applying for land restitution by providing legal and mediation services. The purpose of LRMF’s contract with Cheadle Thompson & Haysom (CTH) was discussed alongside their responsibilities. The presentation provided the Committee with several illustrations and statistics relating to the LRMF’s work, including the types of cases they are involved in, numbers of cases across provinces and municipalities and expenditure.

Member expressed concern during the discussion about the relatively low number of cases, their success rate and the LRMF’s spending. How was their budget calculated? Legal services are a large portion of their expenditure – why are they outsourcing to CTH? How exactly does the DRDLR help those whose cases are unsuccessful? Are farm workers fully informed of their rights? How do they apply to the LRMF for help? Members asked whether there was any overlap between the LRMF that deals with the adjudication of disputes and the district land committees that facilitate land redistribution. Why does the Department of Justice (DoJ) appear to have no involvement? Does the DRDLR engage with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF)? How do they link with the district land committees? What is the DRDLR’s key delivery? Other questions referred to eviction timeframes, the relationship between the National Development Plan (NDP) and land, conflicts in policy, lawyer statistics according to age, gender, race and disability, the geographical positioning of cases and the Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment (ESTA) Bill.

Follow the link below to read the minutes of the briefing by DRDLR: