17 NOVEMBER 2010 PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM COMMUNAL PROPERTY ASSOCIATIONS: DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM MR MDUDUZI SHABANE DIRECTOR-GENERAL 1

INTRODUCTION There are different types of legal entities established for land reform purposes; The most commonly used are Trusts, Communal Property Associations etc...; The Communal Property Associations (CPA) Act, 1996 (Act No.28 of 1996) commenced on 22 May 1996 to enable communities to form juristic persons in order to acquire, hold and manage property on a basis agreed to by members of a community in terms of a written constitution. 2

APPLICATION OF CPA ACT  Restitution beneficiaries (Restitution of Land Rights Act, 22 of 1994);  Redistribution beneficiaries (Provision of Land and Assistance Act, 126 of 1993);  Tenure beneficiaries (Labour Tenants, Farmworkers, Occupiers & other beneficiaries) 3

BACKGROUND  Over 1400 CPAs, provisional associations and similar entities have been registered by the DRDLR since the Act was promulgated in 1996 and approximately 4000 Trusts by the offices of the Masters of the High Courts (Dept. of Justice and Constitutional Development). The CPA Act imposes a variety of obligations on the Director-General and Minister whilst the Trust Property Control Act does not; The CPA Act requires that the Department must monitor CPAs and must report via the Minister to Parliament on their status, performance, challenges and progress to date. 4

BACKGROUND Continued..  A report on CPAs to be submitted to Parliament is being compiled for the financial year: 1 April March The Minister will present the report in June  Trusts are registered by the offices of the Masters of the High Courts and the Act imposes no obligation on them to intervene when there are problems;  The Deputy Master of the Gauteng North High Court has written to the Director-General of DRDLR requesting a bilateral meeting with a view to discuss interventions on Trusts for restitution & redistribution projects similar to what is being done for CPAs. 5

PROBLEM STATEMENT  A group of people or community receiving land from government is required to establish a legal entity.;  Legal entities are by their very nature eurocentric and communities often do not understand the purpose of forming the entity.  The DRDLR also faces challenges when establishing legal entities vs traditional systems of landholding and administration. 6

PROBLEM STATEMENT  Due to the nature of conflicts in some CPAs, the Department has enlisted the services of a service provider called Mediation & Transformation Practice (MTP) to assist with mediation.  There is a panel of mediators and is found in all 9 provinces. 7

PROGRESS MADE  To comply with the provisions of the CPA Act, the DRDLR appointed three (3) service providers in May 2010 to assist in compiling the Annual Report to Parliament.  The project commenced in June 2010 and the time frame given to service providers to complete their investigations was for a period of nine (9) months i.e. final reports to be submitted on 28 February

PROGRESS MADE  The provinces who have established the majority of CPAs are KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North- West;  The service providers have completed the investigation in two (2) provinces, namely Eastern Cape and Western Cape (which has only established a few CPAs). 9

CONCLUSION  A Final Report will be presented to the DRDLR on 28 February 2011 and the Department will collate and consolidate the findings and DG will present the report to the Minister.  Minister will table the Annual Report to Parliament in June END-- 10