Chairperson, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform's responsibility is to redistribute land. Our concern as the DA is the allocation of funds to the Land Restitution Programme. The programme has a huge backlog, coming from the claims done in the previous claims lodged. There are hundreds of claims which are not yet settled. The reopening of lodgement of claims before settling the old claims lodged 12 years ago, before December 1998, will cause a serious confusion and clash between old and new claimants. Land given back to the claimants is not used because of lack of support from the department. The farms which were claimed are not utilised or improved because previous owners cannot invest money on the claimed land.
According to reports, 208 land claims are still to be finalised, based on concerns from claimants and farmers who are waiting to be paid and those who are waiting for the land to be given back to them. Because of this failure to honour the agreement they have signed with the department, the DA will not support Budget Vote No 33. Thank you very much. [Applause.]