State Land Audit progress report; Ingonyama Trust Board 2014 quarterly performance

Author: Ngwenya- Mabila

The Ingonyama Trust Board reported on its performance for the last quarter of 2013/14 and the first quarter of 2014/15. The Trust administers some 2.8 million hectares throughout KwaZulu Natal and received R14.5 million from the Department last year.

A progress report was then provided on the State Land Audit which determined how much land was owned by the state and its usage. The project identified and surveyed all un-surveyed State land for the purpose of fast tracking the release of state land for land reform and settlement of land claims. The land use of state land showed 19.7% was used for agriculture and fishing, and 13.3% was used for recreation and leisure and covered in total some 20 million hectares. A total of 3.2 million hectares of state land had been surveyed and the project would reach completion in the next year. A bill was in process to enable a centralised electronic database for land owned by all spheres of government. A private land desktop audit was done to determine who owns what land in South Africa, but various details regarding owners were not available, such as gender, race and nationality. The ownership of land by males (22.7 million hectares) far outstripped ownership of land by females (5.2 million hectares). The two bills, the Electronic Deeds Registration Bill and the Regulation of Land Holdings Bill, would be brought to Parliament in the foreseeable future.

Questions were asked about unaccounted for land and the draft Regulation of Land Holdings Bill which would empower disclosure of gender, race and nationality when land ownership changed. Members queried use of abandoned land, the inclusion of the land covered by the former homelands under these surveys, and the status of the food security project to be conducted on some one million hectares of land identified for that purpose.

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