South Africa: 28 Years Later, Thousands of Land Claims Are Still Outstanding

Two decades after the first deadline for lodging land claims in South Africa, thousands of claims remain outstanding. As of December 2025, 2.4-million people and 469,000 households have benefited from land restitution, with R60-billion spent on settling and finalising claims. However, the process has been plagued by delays and a slowdown in settling claims.

The Constitutional Court ruled that all claims lodged by December 1998 must be finalised before new claims can be assessed. At the current rate, it will take at least 15 years to settle the remaining old order claims. Valid land claims stem from dispossession after the Natives Land Act of 1913, resulting from racial discrimination.

Claims are settled through financial compensation or by returning suitable land, typically by the government purchasing it from the owner. Of the 63,000 claims lodged by the 1998 deadline, many were later split, leading to nearly 80,000 claims by 2007. As of December 2025, 307 claims are targeted for settlement in the 2026/27 financial year, with R2.5-billion allocated to this task.