Premier wants land ownership in rural areas guaranteed by state
The government needs to guarantee land ownership in rural areas where communities have legal rights to own land‚ Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle said on Wednesday. He was speaking at the Eastern Cape round table engagement on communal land policy at the East London International Convention Centre.He cited co-ops where villagers had no legal ownership of their inherited fields.“The bill to be passed by parliament on communal land has to guarantee this right‚” said Masualle.He said communal land needed to be managed better to ensure that there were agreements between traditional leaders and those democratically elected to sit on traditional councils on which piece of land must be occupied and used for production.Chris Hani District Municipality executive mayor Mxolisi Koyo said there had been instances where investors had bribed individuals‚ including chiefs and councillors‚ to use communal land without the agreement of communities.This had resulted in land being locked into 30-year lease agreements...
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