Land Reform Committee Wraps Its Oversight Visit in Northern Cape

The Portfolio Committee on Land Reform and Rural Development wrapped up its oversight visit programme in Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province yesterday.

The Communal Property Associations (CPAs) in South Africa are currently facing several challenges, including poor governance, corruption, and internal conflicts. As of 2024, there are approximately 1,743 registered CPAs, with only 207 being fully compliant and 124 partially compliant.

The Communal Property Associations Amendment Act, signed into law in October 2024, aims to address these issues by establishing a CPA Office and appoint a Registrar to oversee the associations. The new law also clarifies that land will be owned by residents who are members of associations, rather than the committees.

This is expected to improve protection of community rights and prevent abuse of power by committee members. The committee found that some of the key challenges facing CPAs include poor governance as internal conflicts, corruption, and mismanagement of funds are crippling some of these associations.

The committee found that there is a lack of oversight and limited monitoring and support from the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development (DLRRD) to the CPAs in the Northern Cape. It expressed its concern that Northern Cape is the only province which it visited where comprehensive CPAs were not submitted to it by the DLRRD.

The committee has also noted that the Kurees CPA and Katlani Mazelfontein CPA have been successful in confirming the number of beneficiaries that are sustainable and have been paying out dividends to their households.

However, there are some CPAs who have appealed to the committee to intervene as they have received land but without the necessary support from the DLRRD regarding finance, skills, infrastructure and equipment support.

Whilst there were a number of concerned groups and individuals who informed the committee about alleged fraud and corruption, the Chairperson of the committee, Mr Albert Mncwango, informed the meeting that the complainants must request an investigation and engage the Minister of the DLRRD. The committee undertook to engage the Minister on the matter at its next meeting and requested the department to submit a report to it.

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Africa Fact: Dr Albert Churchward, author of Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, pointed out that writing was found in one of the stone built ruins: “Lt.-Col. E. L. de Cordes . . . who was in South Africa for three years, informed the writer that in one of the ‘Ruins’ there is a ‘stone-chamber,’ with a vast quantity of Papyri, covered with old Egyptian hieroglyphics. A Boer hunter discovered this, and a large quantity was used to light a fire with, and yet still a larger quantity remained there now.”