CARMEL RICKARD: Land reform delay sets the tone
Land reform laws should provide labour tenants with security — but 16 years after the closing date, 11,000 labour tenants’ claims remain unprocessed
Just where should courts start when compensating landowners who lose property as part of our constitutional commitment to apartheid redress? How should they decide on how much should be paid? The issue was in the minds of everyone involved in an important case at the supreme court of appeal last week, on the value of land awarded to the Msiza family, labour tenants on the farm Rondebosch, outside Middelburg, since 1936. As a group, labour tenants have been scandalously neglected. Land reform laws should provide them with land security, but 16 years after the closing date, 11,000 labour tenants’ claims remain unprocessed. The Msiza family is one of the few exceptions, but finality evades even them. In 2004, the land claims court ordered that the family be given the land where they have lived and farmed. But by 2016 there had still been no resolution of the key question: how much should the landowners be paid for the portion awarded to the Msiza family?Eventually the matter came back ...
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