2. Introduction
2.10 Land Fraud and Corruption in KZN
Corruption is one hindrance about the issue of land reform Corruption Watch (2013) highlights that since the province of KwaZulu Natal is the province with regards to land. It is noted that KwaZulu-Natal province experience about thirty-five per cent of the of the total corruption cases that are reported. Corruption is then a hindrance in the manner that land meant to be redistributed then accessed at exorbitant prices limiting the amount of land which the budgeted money by the government could have bought, thereby the targeted resettlement targets set for the province cannot be met and ultimately the reform process is disturbed as a whole.
Corruption Watch (2013) cites that, the complaints of corruption cited in most of the tip-offs which reached them had to do with the abuse of power by government officials, and these accounted for over half of the corruption-related complaints. Moreover, it is noted that Community Property Associations (CPA) have the highest vulnerability and are easily affected by corrupting which then derails the reform process. Government employees are cited to be part and process of the hindrance towards land reform as they are noted to be either deliberately for personal gain delaying the formation of the bodies, secondly it is noted that they also delay the process registering the land to the CPAs as they are reportedly bribed to do so (Corruption Watch, 2013).
One way the South African government had implemented the land reform process has been the creation of Community Properties Associations (CPAs). Community properties associations committee members are also another form of hindrance towards land reform in general as they are noted to be misusing funds, thereby curtailing the productivity of the lands given to the CPAs. Secondly, it is noted that members are illegally selling portions of the land for their gain with no consultation with the rest the members. In one complaint, money received from a development agency was misappropriated by the leader of a certain CPA, instead of going towards the intended objective of funding the development of agricultural land acquired through the restitution process (Corruption Watch, 2013). In November 2012 at a workshop held for CPAs, the then Rural Development and Land Reform Minister, confirmed the fact that the CPA model has loopholes which open it up to forms abuse not only from government
40 | P a g e officials but that it is alsovulnerable for abuse from CPA members. The minister pointed out that the department of rural development and land reform paid out over two hundred million rands in an effort to save restituted land which had been resold by CPA members.
The Kuick Vlei Settlement case
The Kuick Vlei Settlement case is one case where a government employee, and manager had defrauded both the state and the intended beneficiaries of the reform program. According to the records of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (Kockott, 2018), a certain family of former farm workers, had been allocated a farm and were now the legal holders of the farm and were eligible for government grants and support in relation with the government’s objective to support emerging farmers. Thence the government made a provision for livestock to be part of the reform package. However, the government official circumvented the process intended to benefit the family under the reform program and took ownership of both the farm and livestock intended to support the reform program.
Furthermore, he corruptly benefited from the agricultural development grants for livestock purchase, farm implements and livestock handling facilities which all should have been forwarded to the family which he defrauded together with the state (Kockott, 2018). It is noted that in this case, the government official can re-issue the title deeds of the farm and other farm documentation to swindle the farm from the hands of the intended beneficiaries.
Furthermore, the case only came to light because of whistleblower activities after ten years of the initial crime having been committed thus there may be more case of a similar nature within the province which were depriving real beneficiaries their awarded land. As the Kuick Vlei case demonstrates how easy it is for farms acquired by the state, for reform processes, to have ownership fraudulently taken away from the hands of beneficiaries (South African Lawyer, 2018). Thereby there is an intermittent need to introspect into the question of who exactly owns farms that the government has bought for land redistribution and land reform and further to evaluate the procedure used by the government in addressing corruption associated with land restitution process in KZN Province.
41 | P a g e The Roscoe Family Trust scandal
About the Roscoe Family Trust case, it is noted that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Rural Development and Land Reform bought six farms in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, for an amount of thirty-six million rands. In this case, it is also highlighted that evidence pointed to the fact that beneficiary of their final transfer transaction was an entity named Abrina 6822;
this entity only has one shareholder, which is the Roscoe Family Trust, which is in turn controlled by an individual business person. Investigations into the activities surrounding the process of reform showed the existence of lists of beneficiaries that was a forgery as it had been created only to cheat the system and defraud it. Most of those whose names were found on the list were themselves had no idea someone had obtained state funding using their names and identities, highlighting the extent of the criminality (Kockott, 2018).
Of note on the about the Roscoe Family Trust is that three officials from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the well-known Ladysmith businessman named, Roshan Sewpersad was charged. However, the charges were withdrawn for a temporary period in the year 2013 leaving the case unclosed even up to 2018. The outcomes of this case have raised various questions on how many other cases of land fraud by government officials against the vulnerable and illiterate are out there (Sunday Tribune, 2018).
This case poses much threat to prospective land reform initiatives in the country as this means;
there is a need for mechanisms that are transparent and efficient to oversee successful processes.
The Sunday Tribune (2018) notes that if reformations are not done to address any criminal elements that have been identified within Department of Rural Development and Land Reform offices the process of reform is bound to fail. This is because the officials tasked to oversee the success of the process have become the main perpetrators of Land fraud as in the case of Patrick Mashoka and the Shabalala family in KwaZulu-Natal (Sunday Tribune, 2018).
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