The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) and the Minister briefed the Committee on the performance, outcomes and challenges of the Land Rights Management Facility, presenting the Fourth Quarter 2014 report, and also touching on the Extension of security of tenure (land) Amendment Bill. It was noted that the Land Rights Management Facility (LRMF) tried to facilitate provision of specialised legal and mediation services to indigent communities and individuals faced with violations of their rights pertaining to land and livelihood.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) and the Ingonyama Trust Board presented their fourth quarter performance and financial reports for 2014-15. The Committee also received at status report on the Riemvasmaak community claim.

The meeting began with the adoption of the draft report on the budget vote 39, where a number of small issues were raised, including typos and minor amendments. The main thrust of the changes was that the Land Claims Court should be given greater priority, and a policy needed to be put in place to help with alleviating the bottlenecks in these courts. The adoption of the report became heated when the DA abstained from approving it, even though they had been a part of the process from the beginning.

Comment saisir dans sa globalité la dimension juridique se rapportant aux notions de propriété et de foncier au Maroc ? Vaste et complexe démarche qui englobe de nombreux aspects et disciplines, que ce soit à travers l’étude des régimes fonciers, des pratiques immobilières ou encore des politiques publiques mises en place par les différentes autorités du pays. Cette transversalité se retrouve tout d’abord dans une tentative de définition générale qui permettrait d’englober la totalité des caractéristiques afférentes à notre sujet : droit foncier ou droit de la propriété ?

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) briefed the Committee on its third quarter 2014/15 performance and progress on the recommendations made by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and the Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) evaluation.

The Land Act, 2012

The Land Registration Act, 2012

The National Land Commission Act, 2012

The Environment & Land Court Act, 2011

The Urban Areas & Cities Act, 2011

Illegal and irregular allocations of public land were a common feature of the Moi regime and perhaps it’s most pervasive corrupt practice. The Ndung’u Report as well as various reports of the Public Investment Committee details numerous cases of public land illegal allocated to individuals and companies in total disregard of the law and public interest. Most allocations were made to politically correct individuals without justification and resulted in individuals being unjustly enriched at great cost to the people of Kenya.

The Ingonyama Trust was the outcome of a deal between the National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party during the dying days of apartheid just before the transition in 1994. The Trust was established to manage land owned by the government of KwaZulu, and is currently responsible for managing some 2.8 million hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal. The land vests in the Ingonyama (or king) as trustee, to be administered on behalf of members of specific communities.

In recent years, there has been growing attention and effort towards securing the formal, legal recognition of land rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Communities and Indigenous Peoples are estimated to hold as much as 65 percent of the world’s land area under customary systems, yet many governments formally recognize their rights to only a fraction of those lands. This gap—between what is held by communities and what is recognized by governments—is a major driver of conflict, disrupted investments, environmental degradation, climate change, and cultural extinction.

This report summarizes a case study of the Mexican ejidocommunity tenure system. Mexico was selected for this case study because of the rich history and extensive scale of the country’s community land tenure and registration systems. This community system covers 52% of the area of Mexico, roughly equivalent to the size of Egypt, and comprises over 30 000 communities. The ejido system emanated from the Mexican revolution (1910-1917) and represents a case where the customary system of land has been largely integrated into the statutory system.