The Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform commended the progress made by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) and the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights to make sure that claimant’s needs and concerns were addressed, said chairperson Phumzile Ngwenya-Mabila on Thursday.

She was referring to the launch of mobile lodgement offices, which were unveiled by the DRDLR on April 14 in Parliament.

The committee saw the mobile lodgement offices as instrumental in helping to redress the legacy of the notorious Native Land Act of 1913 and to reaffirm the enactment of the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994, which was aimed at compensating those who were forcefully removed and dispossessed of their land after 1913.

The committee was aware that many people had submitted their land claims in the first phase of the restitution process, which was closed on December 31, 1998. It also acknowledged, however, that people were left out of the restitution process owing to a lack of information on the restitution programme and the long distances they were expected to travel to lodge their land claims in the lodgement offices, which were mostly situated in towns.

As such, the committee urged rural communities to take part in an impending restitution educational programme.

The DRDLR intended to embark on educational awareness programmes in all provinces to inform the public how to go about lodging claims and what was needed to lodge claims. To this end, buses would be employed and followed by mobile lodgement offices, which would receive land claim applications.

“The lodgement process is very serious to ensure that those who qualify submit their claims on time to avoid long queues towards the closing date,” Ngwenya-Mabila advised, noting that the lodgement process was reopened for a five-year period to June 30, 2019, after President Jacob Zuma signed the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act into law on June 30, 2014.

The committee would monitor the services of buses and mobile lodgement offices to ensure maximum benefit to rural people and implored officials of the DRDLR assigned to these areas to adhere to the principles of Batho Pele – People First – when executing their duties.