The applicant in Jacobs v Department of Land Affairs had been deprived of land through a racist fraudulent transfer of the land in 1907 and subsequent eviction in 1921.
They claimed financial compensation and were awarded R780,000. On appeal it was held that the Land Claims Court had correctly calculated the amount.
The calculation is not made by using the current value of the property and the value of the 
past loss. That is not what is just and equitable. The court must take into account the factors mentioned in section 33 of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 1994. These factors include the hardship suffered as a result of the deprivation. The court took into account the present day value of the land as one of the factors, but not a decisive factor.
The property had changed considerably since 1920s. Residential property on the outskirts of a rural town had become a commercial property in the central business district of a rapidly developing town of Upington. The redress granted was just and equitable in the amount of R780,000.
Patrick Bracher | Partner | Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa | mail me |
