South Africa: Community Land Rights Have to Co-Exist With Mineral Rights

The troublesome contest between surface versus mineral rights lies at the very heart of the complex issues raised in the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources' report on the recommendations of the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change, published in Parliament in March.

The Committee had been told by Dr Aninka Claassens, former chairperson of the High Level Panel's working group on land, that mineral rights almost always trumped surface rights even though this was not provided for anywhere in law.

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