More than 14 years after the cut-off date for labour tenants to claim rights to the land they live on‚ the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has been ordered to prove its commitment to deal with the backlog of 22 000 claims.

In the Land Claims Court in Johannesburg‚ Judge Mokotedi Mpshe on Tuesday ordered the department to undertake to fully implement the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act.

The department must report back to the court on July 31‚ October 30 and February 12 next year on its progress with the implementation of a September 2014 court order.

In September last year‚ the Land Claims Court ordered the Director-General of Land Reform to compile a report detailing the status of all outstanding labour tenant claims.

The director-general missed the March 31 deadline and has since reported that not only had the department failed to process the majority of the claims‚ but it lacked the basic information necessary to do so.

The Legal Resources Centre (LRC)‚ representing the labourers‚ planned to ask the court to appoint a Master to supervise and support the department in dealing with the claims but the LRC and department instead agreed that the department would meet its obligations and the court would monitor the progress.

The LRC said its clients were stuck in “bureaucratic limbo” with the department “unable or unwilling to take them forward”.

Labour tenants work on farms in exchange for the right to occupy and use a portion of the farm land.

While the applications remain unprocessed‚ the tenants were left vulnerable to eviction‚ restricted in their use of the land and could not plan for the future‚ the LRC said.

A representative of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) in KwaZulu-Natal‚ Siphiwe Mabaso‚ said some of these farmers have had their livestock impounded because their grazing land was being limited.

“Some fencing demarcations of areas are now being adjusted‚” he said.

Mabaso said it costs more than R100 for each day the animals were impounded.

“It’s a lot because it’s charging per day‚” he said. Some did not get their cattle back and they were sold off for the lowest price‚ creating a route to poverty‚ he said.

LPM member Thembiso Mahlaba said that five families living in Nkumane had their herd impounded for three months and were told it would cost R400 000 to get the animals back.

Xolane Mngqusini‚ 33‚ said he had been waiting for six years for land in Mooi River

“I want to plant vegetables to make things easy in life‚” Mngqusini said.