A SUBSTANTIAL chunk of the R179bn estimated for new land claims could end up in the hands of white farmers who claim they were cheated by the apartheid government during the 1970s and 1980s, Johannesburg lawyer Nico van Rensburg said on Wednesday.
Mr van Rensburg, who has been specialising in land claims cases since 1994, said he was waiting for President Jacob Zuma to sign the Restitution of Land Claims and Property Valuation Bill into law before submitting claims for compensation under the Restitution of Land Rights Act.
He said white farmers in the former homelands were often shortchanged when forced to sell their farms and could be eligible for the difference between what they were paid and the original fair market price. Hundreds of white farmers were undercompensated for their farms when the National Party government began speeding up implementation of its homeland policy….
