Polokwane - The death of an 86-year-old woman while queuing outside a land claims lodgement site in Polokwane earlier this month is saddening, the land reform department said on Wednesday.
The department sent condolences to Nyanisi Khuzwayo's family, spokeswoman Linda Page said.
She died while queuing overnight on August 19.
The land claims process was recently re-opened for a period of five years ending June 2019.
This meant there was no need for South Africans dispossessed of their land after June 1913 to rush to lodge claims as sufficient time had been set aside.
The department's commission on restitution of land rights said it was aware of people, especially the elderly, being asked to pay to lodge their claims.
Lodging a land claim was a free government service and charging people for such a service was a crime, Page said.
Lodgement units would be sent to far-flung rural areas to allow everyone with a valid claim to lodge it.
Sapa