Land claimants to celebrate title deeds
ALEXANDRA - Land and property owners are poised to celebrate receipt of title deeds to some claimants.
Alexandra land and property owners are poised to celebrate the awarding of title deeds to some of their counterparts.
This was said recently by Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Hon. Obed Bapela at Sankopano while meeting local leaders.
Alexandra residents, as in the rest of the country, submitted thousands of claims for land rights restoration and restitution to the Land Claims Commission almost 20 years ago. Resolution of their cases has been slow, partly due to contestation by other parties – land owners, tenants, former hostel dwellers in the case of Alexandra, and also the absence of contact details of some contestants, as well as ineptitude by government officials handling the claims. This has led to an inconclusive process with many claims still to be decided after many years of waiting. In an attempt to address this problem, government recently promulgated the re-opening of the claim process until 2018 to also allow for the submission of new claims.
Of the thousands of claims submitted in Alexandra, 14 have now been finalised as they were not contested, and the title deeds are being drawn. President Zuma will present these title deeds to the claimants at a celebratory occasion in Alexandra soon, Bapela said.
