"The fact that we continue to spend more money on less hectares of land as a result of high land prices is a challenge for the commission," he said.
He said since April 1, a total of 165 claims had been settled and this brought the total of settled claims since 1995 to the end of September this year to 74,912 in all provinces.
He said just over R726m had been paid out for 93,420 ha of privately owned land and the target set was close to 5m ha within the next two years.
The national average cost per hectare under review is R7,771.56.
"The question is whether we can as a nation afford to buy land at this cost," he said.
Mphela said about R17bn had been allocated to achieving the target. However, this amount was purely for the purchase of land and did not include any developmental initiatives.
"That is only for land acquisition - it goes into the hands of the land owners - but for development we will probably need much more."
The economic ratio needed for development was R2 for ever R1 spent on land restitution and this required much larger investments.
Resolving claims in court
Other problems that the commission faced were the amount of time taken to resolve claims in the Land Claims Court and disputes involving communities and traditional leaders.
Mphela said across the country a total of 167 claims were currently before the court.
"The lengthy process involved in dealing with cases that are before the courts means that we cannot finalise such claims until (the) legal process has run its course."
Pertaining to the disputes, he said the commission continued to conduct workshops and meetings with traditional leaders to address the issue of malcontent.
"Some traditional leaders are opposed to the establishment of legal entities for the purpose of settling claims, instead preferring that the land be handed over to the traditional authority on behalf of the community instead of the community property associations."
He said some of the concerns the commission had regarding the traditional authority was that in some cases they were part of a political party and this created an obstacle in that the State could not been seen to be giving a party property. - SAPA
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