​​The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights is hosting an Urban Development Dialogue for collaborative discussions with stakeholders that will ensure that integrated urban development takes place on land that has been restored to persons or communities through land restitution. The two day dialogue will take place on the 12th and 13th of October 2017 in Cape Town.

 According to Chief Land Claims Commissioner, Ms Nomfundo Ntloko-Gobodo, the urban development dialogue is the "final instalment of a four part series hosted by the Commission to develop sustainable settlement models" for land restitution claims. Previous dialogues looked at claims affected by mining, sugar cane and forestry CONS as well as agricultural land. 

 Ms Ntloko-Gobodo confirmed that nationally, as at 31 March 2017, approximately 79 616 claims were settled by the Commission of which more than 67 000 (85%) are urban. Claims for urban land were settled on a case BY case basis in ways deemed fit and appropriate however there is a need for an enhanced and standardised operating procedure for efficient and effective settlement of urban claims.

 "The challenge of urban land claims arises with regard to the feasibility of restoring the original land which in most cases is developed into residential or business properties. Claimants are usually adverse to alternative land restoration as original land has ancestral and sentimental ties which were brutally severed by the apartheid land dispossession. Linked to that is also the issue of beneficiation where there are many current households resulting in land restitution beneficiaries opting for financial compensation," said Ms Ntloko-Gobodo.

Various stakeholders in the urban development space from the public and private sector have been targeted to engage and participate in the dialogue. This is to aid in the development of sustainable and integrated settlement models for urban land claims with key focus on balancing the rights of land claimants versus the need for land for urban development, taking into consideration the spheres of government in the context of urban land use development plans.

The series of dialogues will feed into a Land Restitution Colloquium taking place in November that will be a platform to share information on milestones, achievements as well as challenges and development initiatives that have been put in place by the Commission ultimately resulting in policies that will enhance the provision of settlement models and support for restitution beneficiaries.