Land claims court ruling welcomed

TAU SA welcomed the ruling of the Land Claims Court against the Bahiring tribe regarding land in the Koster area (see Beeld report).

"We are glad that the court focused on food security and not on political issues.  TAU SA would like to see that any other land claims will be handled on the same grounds," said Mr Ben Marais, President of TAU SA.

"We also noticed the testimony of an official of the local land claims commissioner that all of the 330 land reform projects under his supervision have failed.  We call on the relevant authorities not to take action against this official because he revealed this information.  It is important that this information is made public because this underlines TAU SA's point of view that it is reckless to go on with land reform if al the projects fail and productive farms turn unproductive due to political aims with a racist undertone," said Mr Marais.

Mr Marais proposed that already settled land claims, will be investigated to make sure that no previous remunerations have been made, as was clearly the case of hte Baphiring tribe. "Government can invest the money recovered by this investigation is any successful land reform projects if it does not want to give the land back to the former commercial farmer."

Statement issued by TAU SA, February 24 2010

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