Cape Town – The Department of Rural Development has failed to meet its deadlines in processing land claims by labour tenants across the country, according to the Legal Resources Centre.
LRC attorney Thabiso Mbense told Fin24 that the Minister of the Department of Rural Development and the Director-General failed to comply with an order made by the Land Claims court on June 9 2015.
The LRC has criticised the department’s “repeated failure” to meet deadlines which, in its view, “jeopardises trust between our clients and the department”.
The LRC has approached the court to appoint a ‘special master’ to assist the court and the department “in overcoming what appears to be an institutional failure”.
The court order compelled the department to file a report and plan for the processing of labour tenant claims for land under the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 of 1996.
“Under the act, those living on farms could lodge claims,” said Mbense, adding that 22 000 labour tenants submitted claims.
The LRC was representing the Association for Rural Advancement (Afra), and four labour tenants residing on the farm owned by Hilton College in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Mbense said, however, that the LRC was launching a class action suit and that the court order affected all labour tenants who made claims before the cut-off date of 31 March 2001.
According to the court order the department’s second report and action plan was due on October 30 2015, but no report has been delivered to the LRC to date.
This was the second time that the department failed to comply with the court order, said the LRC.
The department provided its first interim report and plan on August 4 2015, 4 days after the July 31 due date.
The Department of Rural Development spokesperson Sipho Dlamini told Fin24 that since the matter was in court the department could not comment.