South Africa: 28 Years Later, Thousands of Land Claims Are Still Outstanding
It could take another 15 years to settle outstanding claims lodged by 1998
28 years after the first deadline to lodge land claims, 5,160 claims still need to be finalised.
Between 2014 and 2016, a new window to lodge claims was opened. But the Constitutional Court ruled that all the “old order” claims lodged by December 1998 must be finalised before “new order” claims can be assessed.
At the current rate, it will take at least 15 years for all the old order claims to be settled.
Valid land claims are cases where people were dispossessed of land after the Natives Land Act came into force in 1913, and where such dispossession resulted from racial discrimination. Claims are settled either through financial compensation from the government, or by giving suitable land back, in which case the government usually buys the land from the owner.
GroundUp has previously reported on people who were forcibly removed from District Six during apartheid, and who lodged claims between 2014 and 2016. They are unlikely to still be alive when the government finally considers their claims.
Over 63,000 land claims were lodged by the 1998 deadline. Some of these were later split, and by 2007 the government reported nearly 80,000 claims.
As of 31 December 2025, 2.4-million people and about 469,000 households have reportedly benefited from land restitution. At least R60-billion has been spent on settling and finalising claims.
Delays have beset the land restitution process, and the pace at which claims are being settled has slowed down.
The amount of money available to settle land claims has declined, forcing the department to reduce its annual targets.
The Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, Mzwanele Nyhontso, told Parliament earlier this year that R2.5-billion will be spent on settling land claims in the 2026/27 financial year. The target for the year is to settle 307 claims.
Nyhontso attributed delays to several reasons, including landowners disputing the validity of claims or rejecting offers, claims on communal land causing complications, delays in court matters, and a lack of human resources.
By GroundUp.
