ALL land restitution claims made after December 1998 have been put on hold by the Constitutional Court, after the court found that Parliament did not properly consult the public before deciding to reopen the window for claims.The Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act — which reopened the window for claims — was rushed through Parliament in 2014 ahead of national and provincial elections.At the time, concerns were raised that the government had not sufficiently taken into account the huge budgetary burden it would place on the state to deal with an anticipated huge number of new claims.Critics said the new claims would affect the capacity to finalise the old claims, some of which had been languishing for more than a decade.Some viewed the legislation as a last-minute effort to ingratiate the government with the electorate on an emotive issue.In a unanimous judgment, the Constitutional Court found that the “truncated timeline” for public consultation was inadequate, particularly gi...
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