Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill 2013

Abstract

This document represents a response from researchers at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies to the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill as published on 19 October 2013. It is a statement by the signatories below and does not purport to represent the views of the University or the Institute as a whole. All those signing have been supporters of the Restitution programme since its inception in 1994, and several have been intimately involved in its development over the years. Our comments are made in the spirit of the original aims of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994: that a just resolution should be found for the situation those dispossessed of land rights through racist and apartheid legislation, and that this should be done in a way that supports the broader national aims of reconciliation and the social and economic development of our people. PLAAS’s experience and role in supporting and monitoring the restitution programme are set out in the later section 10 of this submission.