Pretoria - Agri SA's legal bid to claim damages it says farmers have suffered as a result of mineral rights falling under the control of the state amounted to R99bn, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria was told on Monday.
Advocate Cassie Badenhorst, representing Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu, told the court that the total value of the claims amounted to R99bn and in fact one law firm had acted for 1 100 farmers with claims valued at R32bn.
He said the R99bn included R47bn in unused claim rights.
Agri SA is seeking damages on behalf of its members from Shabangu as it claims the mineral rights its members owned were expropriated by the government when the Mineral Petroleum Resources Development Act became effective on May 1 2004.
According to the government the law makes the state the custodian of the country's mineral wealth for the benefit of all South Africans.
Acting Judge Hans-Joachim Fabricius told Agri SA advocate Gerrit Grobler that when the trial resumed on Tuesday he would like to hear how Agri SA claimed the expropriation took place.