The Committee expressed grave concerns with regard to the drastic decline of the budget allocation for the programme of Land Restitution. In 2010/11, the programme of Restitution was allocated R3, 574, 221 billion and reduced to R2, 497,293 billion for 2011/12, a decline of 33.33 % in real terms. The concern was further bolstered by the fact that Restitution is a constitutional imperative in terms of Section 25 of the Constitution, the nature of rural land claims that were yet to be settled, huge commitments and pending court orders to the tune of R12 billion, and the cost of land acquisition under the market-based approaches. Based on the past experiences, it had become evident the DRDLR was unlikely going to finalize all the outstanding claims by 2014. Yet restitution was considered a crucial programme, if properly funded and implemented, that could result in a redress of skewed patterns of land ownership and assist the majority of the landless poor and rural people access land on their own to produce food for themselves and the Nation.