ANC MP reintroduces land claims draft Bill

The National Assembly Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform has begun discussions on a private members' amendment Bill to reopen the window for citizens to lodge land claims. According to a News24 report, the Bill was brought by ANC MP Pumzile Mnguni, having been tabled and referred to the committee in August by the Office of the Speaker. Parliament had previously opened up a draft Bill for public comment in 2014, but was ruled by the Constitutional Court not to have given enough time for comment. The court nullified the Bill in July last year, but protected the claims of citizens that had been submitted in those two years. It gave Parliament two years to reintroduce and adopt legislation by July 2018. Mnguni said that the reopening of the Bill was therefore valid, as the original window that closed in 1998 only received 80 000 claims, which was ‘only 1% of the anticipated demand’. The Bill seeks to extend the date for lodging a claim of restitution to five years after the date of its signing into law.