Cape Town - The Department of Justice’s desire to speed up land claims in court has led to the government establishing a permanent Land Court.
In the past few years, the department has experienced a backlog of land claims, resulting in delays in finalising the cases.
Mak Mokulubete, of the department of justice, told MPs on Wednesday that the purpose of having a permanent court dealing with land matters was to fast-track cases.
He said they would ramp up the process to ensure the Land Court was established soon. It would take over from the Land Claims Court in hearing land claims.
However, Parliament will have to process the Bill related to the court.
Mokulubete said the Land Claims Court had its own problems and could not expedite cases on land.
“The Land Claims Court… has its own challenges and now in order to rectify those challenges, we are saying we are going to get rid of that court, establish a new court… The land claims court is established in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act.
“We are saying we are going to establish a Land Court through its own legislation. We are going to take it out of the Restitution Act, and we are establishing it under its own legislation that is going to replace the land claims commission.”
“We are not going to ultimately have the Land Claims Court running parallel to the Land Court. All the matters that are dealt with in the Land Claims Court are going to be transferred and dealt with in the Land Court,” he said.
However, the cases will not come before the Land Court until it is established. This will be done once there is a promulgation
Mokulubete said the Land Claims Court was established with the intention that it would have a short lifespan and to speedily deal with land claims.
But the cases piled up, to the point where there is a backlog.
The government, therefore, decided to establish the Land Court to fast-track the cases, Mokubelete said.
The Land Court will have permanent judges to preside over matters on land.
That would ease the pressure on the system and cut down on the backlog as there would be full-time judges and other officials of the court to speed up cases, he said.
Political Bureau