Willing sellers wait a year and still no money

Pretoria High Court judge Carl Rabie has ordered government to immediately pay Limpopo farmers who sold their farms for restitution but are still waiting for their money, months after beneficiaries have taken possesion of the land.
The Land Claims Commission bought the farms on behalf of the Bakgatla Ba Mocha Communal property Association on 27 February 2008.
After the purchases, the state could not pay for the farms, saying the money was not budgeted for even at reduced prices, so the farmers took the matter to court as a last resort.
Judge Rabie told land affairs minister Lulama Xingwana, land claims commissioner Blessing Mphela and finance minister Trevor Manuel to immediately make money available to pay the five farmowners.
According to a court report, the owners of the farms Turflaagte, De Kuil, Middelkopje and Palmmiet Gat, all in the Bela Bela and Waterberg districts, sold their farms to the state as willing sellers.
A week after signing over the title deeds to government, they got a message that the state wanted to reduce the original prices. Collectively the farms were discounted by R40 million.
In terms of the purchase contract, the government should have paid 50% of the total purchase price and the balance within 10 days after that. But the provincial land claims commissioner Miyelani Nkatingi insisted the state hadn’t committed itself verbally or in writing to when it would pay.
By January this year all the farms were transferred to the beneficiaries with no payment made to the sellers. Now, after the court order, Mphela maintains that money is not yet available.
According to one applicant, Mphela said the sellers should wait until the end of March, but couldn’t confirm when the payments would be made.
In his ruling, Judge Rabie stressed that the issue should be settled as soon as possible as the applicants have other commitments to finance, like new properties. – Peter Mashala