Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill: finalisation

Rural Development and Land Reform

05 September 2018
Chairperson: Ms P Ngwenya-Mabila (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

Documents handed out: B-list of changes (Members only); Two-page Report on Amendments to Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill [B 19-2017] (Members only)

The Committee met very briefly to ensure that all amendments decided upon in the morning session had been correctly made in the final copy of the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill. The Committee adopted the amendments. The Chairperson read through a two-page report to be published in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Report. The report was adopted by the Committee.

A technical amendment was made to Clause 2 to ensure correct reference to section 6 of the Act. Two changes were made to Clause 5, firstly to link referrals to the Court to Section 14 and, secondly, to correct the powers of the Commission to investigate claims, and not to determine claims. Finally, in Clause 6(e ) offences against a claimant would be liable to a term of imprisonment of 12 months, not six months.

The Committee work on the Bill was concluded.

Meeting report

Opening remarks
The Chairperson apologised for being late. She had been called to another meeting shortly before the Committee meeting had been due to start and had not heard her phone as it had been on silent mode. She thanked those Members who had waited.

The Chairperson noted that the meeting had begun with four Members but the staff were contacting others to make up a quorum to adopt the Bill.

Consideration of the amendments to the Restitution of Land rights Amendment Bill [B 19-2017]
Members were issued with a document indicating the changes made, as discussed in the earlier meeting.  The Chairperson asked Members to consult both the original Bill and the changes before them.

B list
The Chairperson presented the changes made to the Bill by the Legal Advisor and Committee staff following the decisions taken in the meeting that morning.

Clause 2: Section 6 of Act 22 of 1994 sub-section 2
The Committee had identified a technical error in that Clause 2 referred to section 11, instead of section 6. That had been corrected.

Clause 5: Insertion of 16A
16A(1) The referral to the court had been tightened up by inserting a reference to section 14 to ensure the authenticity of referrals.
16A(2) Two lines in the processing of claims had been deleted. Instead of being able to determine the validity of a claim, it gave the Commission the right to “Investigate the claims”.
The Clause had been re-written and replaced the previous version.

Clause 6: section 17
In subsection (e) a change was made in terms of the maximum period of imprisonment from six months to 12 months.

The Chairperson informed the Committee that those were the only changes to the Bill. She asked for a proposal for the adoption of the amendments.

Ms C Matsimbi (ANC) proposed the adoption of the amendments to the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill [B 19-2017]. Mr A Madella (ANC) seconded the adoption of the amendments.

Consideration of the Report of the Portfolio Committee of Rural Development and Land Reform on the Restitution of Land rights Amendment Bill [B 19-2017]
The two-page report was handed out to Members and read by the Chairperson.

Clause 2
On page 2, in line 18, after “Section”,  omit “11” and substitute it with “6”.

The Chairperson asked if all Members agreed with the statement. The Committee agreed.

Clause 5
The clause was rejected in its entirety and a new clause 5 added.

The Chairperson asked if all Members agreed with the statement. The Committee agreed.

New Clause
Insertion of section 16A in Act 22 of 1994
5.The following section is hereby inserted after section 16 of the principal Act:
“Processing of claims
16A.
(1) Upon the finalisation or referral in terms of section 14 to the Court of all claims lodged on or before 31 December 1998, the Chief Land Claims Commissioner shall certify in writing that such claims have been finalised or referred to the Court, and shall publish a notice in the Gazette and in the media circulating nationally and in the province, stating the date on which the Commission shall start processing claims lodged
from 1 July 2014 until 28 July 2016; and in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act, 2017.
(2) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in subsection (1), when processing claims lodged on or before 31 December 1998, the Commission may on a case by case basis and where it would be in the interest of justice to do so, consider a claim contemplated in paragraphs (a) or (b) of subsection (1)  in order to investigate the merits of a claim lodged on or before 31 December 1998.”.’’.

The Chairperson asked if all Members agreed with the statement. The Committee agreed.

Clause 6
On page 4, in line 19, after “three” omit “six” and substitute with “12”.

The Chairperson asked if all Members agreed with the statement. The Committee agreed.

The Chairperson noted that all Members had agreed to the report. She asked for a Member to propose the adoption.

Mr R Cebekhulu (IFP) proposed the adoption of the report.

Mr P Mnguni (ANC) indicated that he would second the proposal but, first, he cautioned that there might be an error in the Bill as the numerals were not transcribed in a consistent form. Six had been written in letters as a word and twelve was written in numerals.

The Chairperson suggested that it might have been an error.

Mr Michael Prince, Parliamentary Legal Advisor, indicated that the numbers were correct and had been written in the drafting style. He explained that numbers under ten were written in word format and numbers above ten were written in numerals.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Prince for explaining the legal way of doing things. She accepted the proposal for adoption by Mr Cebekhulu. The adoption had been seconded by Mr Mnguni. That was the end of the meetings on the Restitution of Land rights Amendment Bill [B 19-2017].

Closing remarks
The Chairperson thanked all Members of the Committee, the support staff and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform that had been with the Committee throughout the process to the very end. It was an intensive process. She thanked Mr Mnguni for initiating the Private Members’ Bill to make sure that the order of the Constitutional Court was implemented. She also thanked stakeholders for participation in the process.

 The meeting was adjourned.
 

Documents

No related documents

Download as PDF

You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.

See detailed instructions for your browser here.

Share this page: