Land Rights Management Facility: progress report

The Portfolio Committee was briefed on the work of the Land Rights Management Facility (LRFM), which had been established in 2012 to provide specialised legal and mediation services to indigent farm dwellers, labour tenants and communities who faced the violation of their land rights.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) reported that at the moment, the LRFM was dealing with 776 land rights matters. Of these, 692 had been pending at the time of transition to the current service provider, which had been appointed in June this year, and 84 new matters had been received since its appointment. The court cases were divided among various forums – magistrates courts (58%), land claims courts (1%), the labour court (1%), high court (14%) and Constitutional Court (1%). Stellenbosch in the Western Cape and Amajuba in the KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of land rights cases. R11 773 457 had been spent between August and October 2016. Maenetja Attorneys had been awarded the tender to manage the LRMF for a two-year period, starting on 1 July 2016. The firm had been established in 2003 and had divisions in labour law, conveyancing and notary public.