THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL OF SOUTH AFRICA
JUDGMENT

Reportable
Case no: 201/2016

In the matter between:
MACASSAR LAND CLAIMS COMMITTEE
APPELLANT
and
MACCSAND CC

FIRST RESPONDENT
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC
OF SOUTH AFRICA

SECOND RESPONDENT
Neutral citation: Macassar Land Claims Committee v Maccsand CC
(201/2016) 2016 ZASCA 167 (23 November 2016)
Coram:
MAYA AP, WALLIS JA and FOURIE, SCHOEMAN and
DLODLO AJJA
Heard:
7 November 2016
Delivered: 23 November 2016
Summary: Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 – Land Claims
Court – powers – claim for restitution of commonage – mining right in
terms of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002
– whether Land Claims Court has power to order the expropriation of
right and its expungement.

ORDER

On appeal from: Land Claims Court (Mpshe AJ sitting as court of first
instance):
(a) The order of the Land Claims Court is altered to read as follows:
„The special plea is upheld and the following portions of the amended
particulars of claim are struck out, namely:  in para 16.1 the words
„exploited the mineral and natural resources of the commonage by
inter alia utilizing the mineral wealth of the sand dunes by extracting
limestone and utilizing and selling sand‟; in para 45 the underlined
words; paras 52(2) to 52(11) and 72; the underlined words in prayer
(a); and, prayer (f).‟
(b)  The appeal is otherwise dismissed.
(c)  The Appellant is ordered to pay the costs of the First Respondent,
such costs to include those consequent upon the employment of
two counsel.

JUDGMENT

Wallis JA (Maya AP and Fourie, Schoeman and Dlodlo AJJA
concurring)

[1] The appellant, the Macassar Land Claims Committee (the
Committee) is a voluntary association representing members of the
community of Sandvlei, Macassar. It claims that this community is
descended from a group of freed slaves on the farm Zandvliet and that,

after they were freed, they enjoyed rights of commonage over Zandvliet
that were reflected in the title deed of the farm. However, after the
declaration of Macassar as a Coloured Group Area in terms of the Group
Areas Act 41 of 1950, the various erven that incorporated parts of the
commonage were transferred either to members of the Coloured group or
to the Community Development Board, a statutory body. When this was
done the references in the title deeds to the land being or including
commonage were deleted. As a result the Committee claims that the
community of Sandvlei was dispossessed of their rights in the
commonage in terms of a piece of racially discriminatory legislation.

[2] On 23 June 2003 the Committee launched an application before the
Land Claims Court (LCC), in terms of the provisions of the Restitution of
Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 (the Act), seeking restitution of a right in
land in respect of the commonage previously forming part of erven 1195,
1196, 1197, 1198 and 1191 Macassar. The application cited 11
respondents. Of those only two, Maccsand CC (Maccsand) and the
Government of the Republic of South Africa, represented by the
Department of Mineral and Energy (the Department), are relevant to and
participated in this appeal as the first and second respondents
respectively.

[3] Maccsand holds a mining right granted in terms of the Minerals
and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (the MPRDA),
that entitles it to engage in sand mining operations on Erf 1197,
Macassar, which is one of the erven in respect of which the Committee
advances its claim. As part of the relief that it sought in the LCC the
Committee claimed the following orders:

„(a)
An order directing the second and third defendants1 to acquire, or if necessary
to expropriate erven 1195, 1196, 1197, 1198 and 1991 Macassar as well as the
entitlement, alternatively the right of the first defendant to mine erf 1197 Macassar.
…
(b)
Restitution of the lost commonage rights in land on the former farm Zandvliet,
Macassar, by restoration of erven 1195, 1196, 1197, 1198 and 1991 Macassar . . . into
the name of a communal property association to be formed to administer same on
behalf of the community of Sandvlei, Macassar.
(c)
Alternatively, restitution of the lost commonage rights in land on the former
farm Zandvliet by amending all present title deeds and diagrams that comprise land
that previously formed part of the commonage that existed on the former farm
Zandvliet . . . with the following words:

“Subject to the Zandvliet commonage”.
(d)
. . .
(e)
. . .
(f)
An order expunging the mining rights granted to the first defendant
[Maccsand] pursuant to the expropriation that had been sought in respect thereof in
prayer (a) prior to the conversion of such.‟ (My emphasis.)

[4] In response to these prayers the Department delivered a special
plea in which it contended that the LCC had no power to grant the relief
claimed in respect of Maccsand‟s mining rights. Maccsand made
common cause with the Department in this regard and the issue was dealt
with separately before Mpshe AJ on 13 April 2015. He delivered a
judgment on 15 September 2015 upholding the point and granting the
following order:
„This court does not have jurisdiction to acquire the erven as stated nor to expropriate
the mining right as exercised by First Defendant.‟
This appeal is with his leave.

1 The Minister and the Minister of Land Affairs respectively.

The Act
[5] The LCC was constituted by the Act and its powers are set out in
the Act. Unlike the High Court it has no general jurisdiction. The
outcome of the case therefore depends upon a proper construction of the
powers vested in it. One of its functions in terms of s 22(1)(a) of the Act
is to determine any right to restitution of any right in land in accordance
with the Act. In terms of s 2(1)(d) of the Act a person is entitled to
restitution of a right in land (as defined) if it is a community or part of a
community dispossessed of a right in land after 19 June 1913 as a result
of past racially discriminatory laws or practices. The Committee claims
that the Group Areas Act dispossessed the community it represents of its
commonage rights. That is the foundation for its claim.

[6] In order to see the powers of the LCC in context it is helpful to
start by examining the provisions of the Act dealing with claims for
restitution. The following definitions appear in s 1 thereof:
„“claim” means-
(a)   any claim for restitution of a right in land lodged with the Commission in terms
of this Act; or
(b)   any application lodged with the registrar of the Court in terms of Chapter IIIA for
the purpose of claiming restitution of a right in land;
“restitution of a right in land” means-
(a)   the restoration of a right in land; or
(b)   equitable redress.
“restoration of a right in land” means the return of a right in land or a portion of
land dispossessed after 19 June 1913 as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or
practices;
“right in land” means any right in land whether registered or unregistered, and may
include the interest of a labour tenant and sharecropper, a customary law interest, the
interest of a beneficiary under a trust arrangement and beneficial occupation for a
continuous period of not less than 10 years prior to the dispossession in question.‟

[7] Three important principles emerge from the definitions. The first is
that the definition of „right in land‟ encompasses everything from full
ownership of land to unregistered rights such as the interest of a labour
tenant or sharecropper, or even continuous residence for a period of not
less than ten years prior to the dispossession. The expression must be
given a broad meaning in accordance with the remedial purpose of the
Act.2 It is undoubtedly wide enough to encompass the commonage rights
that are in issue in this case.

[8] The second point is that the ambit of the entitlement to restitution
is to be found within the four corners of the Act. In Florence,3 Zondo J,
giving the judgment of the Constitutional Court, said:
„The “restitution of a right in land” as defined is the full redress cognisable by the
Restitution Act for the dispossession of a right in land. Where a statute creates a new
cause of action and prescribes a specific remedy for that cause of action, the
prescribed remedy is the only remedy available for that cause of action.‟
In other words, the LCC is a creature of statute having only the powers
conferred by the Act. It has no inherent jurisdiction to redress perceived
grievances in regard to the dispossession of a right of land, save in the
manner contemplated by the Act.

[9] The third point, flowing from Florence and the definitions, is that
restitution of a right in land must either take the form of the restoration of
the right in land of which the claimant was dispossessed or equitable
redress. Where restoration of a right in land is claimed that requires

2 Department of Land Affairs and others v Goedgelegen Tropical Fruits [2007] ZACC 12;  2007 (6)
SA 199 (CC) (Goedgelegen) para 53; Alexkor Ltd and others v Richtersveld Community and others
[2003] ZACC 18; 2004 (5) SA 460 (CC) para 98.
3 Florence v Government of the Republic of South Africa [2014] ZACC 22; 2014 (6) SA 456 (CC)
paras 166-170, especially 170.

„return‟ of the right of which the claimant was dispossessed. In other
words the claimants are to be restored to the position they would have
been in had they not been dispossessed of their right.

[10]  There may be instances where, as a result of intervening events, it
is not possible to restore everything that was taken away or to restore it in
precisely the same form as it was when the claimants were dispossessed,
but the purpose of the Act‟s mechanism is to achieve restitution. It is not
to be used to obtain more than was taken away by the act of
dispossession.

Section 35(1)(a) of the Act
[11] Against that background, I turn to the provision of the Act on
which the Committee relies in claiming that the LCC has the power to
order the expropriation of Maccsand‟s mining right. It is s 35(1)(a),
which provides that:
„(1) The Court may order-
(a) the restoration of land, a portion of land or any right in land in respect of
which the claim or any other claim is made to the claimant or award any
land, a portion of or a right in land to the claimant in full or in partial
settlement of the claim and, where necessary, the prior acquisition or
expropriation of the land, portion of land or right in land . . .‟

[12] Counsel for the Committee, Mr Rosenberg SC, submitted that what
was being sought in this case was restitution of land, specifically the
properties mentioned in the order, including Erf 1197. As these were not
in the ownership of the State they could only be restored if they were first
acquired. Their acquisition or expropriation was therefore necessary in
order to give effect to the order for restitution. There was no difference
between counsel over this approach to the construction of s 35(1)(a). It

accords with several carefully drawn distinctions in the Act. First, the Act
provides for the restitution of a right in land, not the restitution of land
simpliciter. When a claim for restitution of a right in land is upheld, the
LCC can order its restoration, and restoration means the return of the
right of which the claimant was dispossessed. Frequently the right that
was dispossessed will have been ownership and that is why s 35(1)(a)
empowers the LCC to order the „restoration of land, a portion of land or
any right in land‟. The latter expression must refer to any „other‟ right in
land, that is, any right other than a right to land or a portion of land. To
hold otherwise would mean that s 35(1)(a) introduced a concept of a
„right in land‟ different from the one in the definition in s 1. When the
LCC is asked to order the restoration of land or a portion of land that is
because the right in land asserted by the claimant is ownership of the land
concerned or that portion of land.

[13] An order for the acquisition or expropriation of land in terms of
s 35(1)(a) may only be made by the LCC where that is necessary in order
to implement an order for the restitution of land. The language of the
section is clear. It refers to the power of the LCC to make an order for the
restitution of land, the restitution of a portion of land and the restitution of
a right in land, and then says that where necessary an order can be made
for the acquisition or expropriation of the land, portion of land or right in
land. Acquisition or expropriation is only necessary when there is to be
restitution of a particular piece of land or portion of land or other right in
land. The use of the definite article means that what may be expropriated
refers back to the land, portion of land or right in land that is the subject
of the restoration order.

[14] On behalf of Maccsand it was submitted that this was fatal to the
claim for an order compelling the acquisition or expropriation of
Maccsand‟s mining right. The community had never held or exercised a
mining right in respect of Erf 1197 and was not asking to have a mining
right, as a right in land, restored to them. As the power to order
expropriation may only be exercised when necessary in order to restore
the right in land that is the subject of the claim for restitution of that right,
it is simply unavailable in this situation. Even more is it unavailable for
the purpose of expunging a mining right. For the Department, Mr Warner
made the point that it is only rights in land of which people were
dispossessed by racially discriminatory legislation and measures that can
be the subject of a claim for restitution. He submitted that the mining
right possessed by Maccsand was not in existence prior to the enactment
and coming into force of the MPRDA and therefore it could not be the
subject of a claim for restitution. As such it could not be the subject of an
order for its acquisition or expropriation.

[15] These arguments are undoubtedly correct if the Committee‟s claim
for restitution was a claim in respect of the right in land constituted by the
commonage rights that the community had previously enjoyed over
various erven of the farm Zandvliet. In my view it was. The
Constitutional Court held in Goedgelegen4 that it is vital to characterise
the claim for restitution accurately. In this case the restitution being
sought by the Committee was not restitution of ownership of land. That
was made clear in its particulars of claim and in the relief that it sought.
As to the former it was alleged that „the community were deprived of the
usage of the commonage‟. As to the latter both prayers (b) and (c)

4 Goedgelegen para 20.

embodied claims for „restitution of the lost commonage rights‟. It was
alleged that the community exercised both registered and unregistered
commonage rights in land and were dispossessed of that right in land.
The manner of their dispossession was by erecting fences and removing
references to the commonage from diagrams of the affected erven. In
regard to erf 1197, which is the erf on which Maccsand has mining rights,
the Community Development Board acquired this in 1975 and the
Surveyor General issued a new diagram omitting the commonage in
1974. Had this not occurred the rights of the community to the
commonage would have remained in force. Instead there was a refusal to
recognise those rights.

[16] The Committee argued that its claim was a claim for the restitution
of land founded on the dispossession of its commonage rights. If that was
incorrect, as in my view it was, then for that reason alone there could
never be a right to an order that the Minister acquire or expropriate
Maccsand‟s mining right and no basis for the further prayer that this
mining right be expunged.

[17] Finally, under this head, recognition that the only purpose for
which the power of expropriation in s 35(1)(a) may be used is in order to
restore that which is to be expropriated to the person claiming restitution,
creates a further obstacle in the path of the Committee‟s argument. The
purpose of the claimed acquisition or expropriation of Maccsand‟s
mining right is that it be expunged, not that it be transferred to the
Committee or the suggested communal property association. The
question of any exercise of mining rights thereafter is a matter for
determination in accordance with the prescripts of the MPRDA. The
Committee and the community it represents have made no decision on

whether any application will be made to secure those rights. Accordingly,
the acquisition or expropriation of Maccsand‟s mining rights is not an
acquisition or expropriation contemplated by s 35(1)(a), because it is not
an acquisition or expropriation directed at vesting the acquired rights in
the applicant for restitution.5

Section 35 (4) of the Act
[18]  Counsel for the Committee sought to meet the point that its claim
was one for restitution of the right in land constituted by the community‟s
rights of commonage, by drawing attention to the provisions of s 35(4) of
the Act, which empowers the LCC, when ordering the restitution of a
right in land, to „adjust the nature of the right previously held by the
claimant‟. He submitted that even if the right of which the community
had been dispossessed was a right of commonage it was open to the LCC,
in granting restitution, to adjust that right by directing the acquisition of
the land over which the commonage right existed.

[19] In my view section 35(4) does not support the argument. No doubt
such adjustment may be necessary in some cases, to deal with events that
have occurred since the dispossession and to effect as full and proper a
restitution as is feasible. But adjusting a right means that the right
remains the same, but in some matter of detail is altered. It does not mean
that the nature of the right is so altered that a wholly different right comes
into existence. For example, the right of a labour tenant – a person who,
in exchange for their labour, enjoys rights of use of grazing or cropping

5 As the suggestion is that the mining right is to be expropriated in order to be expunged it may be that
this would not be an expropriation at all, in view of the majority judgment in Agri SA v Minister for
Minerals and Energy [2013] ZACC 9; 2013 (4) SA 1 (CC) (Agri SA – CC) paras 58, 59, 67 and 68,
which appears to have held that an expropriation only occurs when the expropriator acquires the
substance or core content of what was previously held by the expropriatee. However, see para 63 and
the apparent approval in footnote 94 of what was said in this regard in the SCA judgment.

land6 – will on restitution have to be adjusted to take account of the
provisions of the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 of 1966.
Something that would call for adjustment arises from s 3 of that Act,
which permits a labour tenant to nominate someone other than themself
to perform service to the owner of the farm in their stead. That may well
not have been the basis upon which they, or their ancestors, became
labour tenants. But in granting restoration of the labour tenancy account
must be taken of changes in the law or circumstances that require some
adjustment of the right being restored.

[20] It does not follow that s 35(4) empowers the LCC, when restitution
is sought of a particular right in land, to adjust the right so as to alter its
essential nature and restore something different from that which was
taken away. Thus a tenant deprived of possession may recover
possession, and a usufructuary deprived of use may recover use, but
neither of them can be given ownership in place of their tenancy or
usufruct. That would not be restitution, but something else entirely.

[21] Counsel for the appellant sought to pray in aid of this argument the
decision in Goedgelelgen. He submitted that the claimants in that case
were labour tenants who had been evicted as a result of past
discriminatory practices and that the relief they obtained was ownership
of the farm on which they had previously been labour tenants. However,
that was incorrect. It appears from the judgment that the individual
claimants sought restitution of their rights as labour tenants and claimed
to exercise the „tenancy‟ where their homesteads had formerly been. In

6 De Jager v Sisana 1930 AD 71 at 81 and 83; Goedgelegen para 46. A labour tenant is defined in these
terms in s 1 of the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 of 1996.

addition they claimed the land immediately round their homesteads to be
used jointly for ploughing and grazing.7 They were not awarded
ownership of that land. The court held that they had been dispossessed of
occupation, ploughing and grazing rights in that land,8 and in the result
they did not press for relief beyond a declaratory order as to their rights,
leaving it to the relevant government department to facilitate the
resolution of the nature and extent of restitution or equitable redress.9
While therefore the claimants had sought a right greater than the rights of
which they had been dispossessed, that was not persisted in and was not
granted by the court. The judgment was not authority for the submission
that, in adjusting the right to be restored under s 35(4), an entirely
different right may be given to the claimant.

[22] It follows that, contrary to the contentions of counsel for the
Committee, a claim for restitution arising from dispossession of a right in
land other than ownership cannot give rise to a claim for restitution of
land.

The MPRDA
[23] The final string to appellant‟s counsel‟s bow was to submit that it
was not open to us to take this view of the Committee‟s claim. He pointed
out that in prayer (a) there was a claim for an order for the acquisition or
expropriation of the various erven, including Erf 1197, and submitted that
this made it clear that the claim for restitution was a claim for the
restitution of land to be met by transferring the land in question to a
communal property association. Although he did not mention this there

7 Goedgelegen para 25.
8 Goedgelegen para 47.
9 Goedgelegen para 82.

are one or two places in the particulars of claim where it is alleged that
the community used the commonage as if they were the owners of it. It is
therefore desirable to examine whether on this basis the prayers that are
attacked in these proceedings could be justified.

[24] Assuming therefore that the Committee‟s claim is to be treated as a
claim for the restitution of ownership of land, because that was the relief
prayed for, its further argument took the following course. Restoration of
the bare ownership of land (dominium) will be incomplete where the land
is burdened with rights vested in third parties that detract from the right
of ownership. Thus, if the land to be restored is now burdened with a
registered long lease or a servitude, it is necessary in order to effect
restitution not only that the land be acquired, either by agreement or
expropriation, but also that the registered rights of the lessee or servitude
holder be acquired in the same way. In that way the rights of possession
of the lessee and the rights of the dominant tenement can be removed and
transferred to the claimant, thereby securing that they will be
extinguished by merger and the claimant will receive full restitution. For
the purposes of the argument this can be accepted, without holding that it
is necessarily correct.

[25] In terms of s 5(1) of the MPRDA a mining right is a limited real
right in land capable of being registered against the title deeds of the
property. Accordingly, so the argument ran, it was similar to a registered
long lease or other real right in its limitation on the right of full dominium
of an owner of property and fell to be dealt with in the same way. In order
to restore the commonage rights to the Committee it was therefore
necessary that the mining right be removed. Otherwise the restitution

would be incomplete and the community would not have the commonage
rights of which it had been dispossessed restored to them.

[26] Mr Budlender SC, on behalf of Maccsand, first responded to this
argument by drawing attention to the provisions of s 23 of the MPRDA
and argued that it imposed an obligation on the Minister to grant a mining
right over property whenever the requirements of s 23(1) were satisfied.
As such he submitted that it was not the particular mining right enjoyed
by Maccsand that burdened erf 1197, but the provisions of s 23, and that
this section imposed the same burden upon every property in South
Africa.

[27] Whilst having a superficial attraction, I do not think this point is
correct. It is true that the Minister is obliged if the requirements of s 23(1)
are satisfied to grant a mining right. It is also true that once a mining right
is granted the holder of the right is entitled, subject only to giving notice
and compliance with all other applicable obligations, to enter upon the
land and act in terms of the mining right, notwithstanding any objection
from the owner. However, the important point is that it is only once a
mining right has been granted in respect of a particular property that the
right to enter upon the land and engage in mining activities becomes
operative. It is then that the owner‟s rights of ownership are diminished.
Until a mining right is granted in respect of a property there is no
diminution of ownership, but merely the possibility, distant in most cases,
that it may become subject to a mining right in the future.

[28] There is far more force in Mr Budlender‟s next two points which
are based upon the impact of the MPRDA. The first was that even if the
Committee was entitled to restitution of the land right of which it was

dispossessed, that would not give it any right to mine on erf 1197. Nor
could it claim a right to prevent Maccsand from doing so in terms of its
permit. The second, closely related to the first, was that any diminution in
the rights for which the Committee is seeking restitution arises from a
post-democracy statute and, if and when restitution is ordered, it cannot
be restitution free from burdens imposed under legislation enacted by a
democratic parliament and intended to remedy past racial discrimination.
In order to address these arguments it is desirable to start by looking
briefly at the history of mining rights in this country.

[29] In Agri SA,10 speaking for the majority of this court, I held that the
right to allocate mining rights, such as those arising under the MPRDA,
has always been vested in the state and that:
„… [T]he MPRDA is merely the latest in along line of legislation and statutory
instruments in South Africa that affirms the principle that the right to mine is
controlled by the state, and allocated to those who wish to exercise it. The right to
mine remains, as it always has been, ever since mining became an important part of
the economy of South Africa, under the control of and vested in the state, which
allocates it in accordance with current policy.‟11
Apart from expressing a preference for the term „exploitation rights‟ for
„the right to mine‟ and „ownership of minerals‟ for „mineral rights‟,12 I do
not discern anything in the subsequent judgment of the Constitutional
Court to suggest that this was incorrect.13

10 Minister of Minerals and Energy v Agri South Africa [2012] ZASCA 93; 2012 (5) SA 1 (SCA) (Agri
SA – SCA).
11 Agri SA – SCA para 85.
12 Agri SA – CC para 39.
13 Agri SA – CC para 46 accepts that the exploitation of minerals was subject to the government‟s
regulatory power

[30]  The ability to exploit minerals has always been distinct from the
ownership of minerals before they are mined and extracted. At most
periods in South Africa‟s history the ownership of minerals and precious
stones prior to mining and extraction has vested in the owner of the land,
although sometimes by statute the state has taken such ownership for
itself.14  At times the state took for itself the exclusive right to mine and
the ability to allocate that right; sometimes it vested ownership of
minerals still in the ground in itself; sometimes it vested the right to mine
in the owner or, where mineral rights had been separated from the land in
terms of a notarial lease or other arrangement, the holder of the mineral
rights.15

[31] These fluctuations in the impact of mining laws are illustrated by
the claim in this case that the right of commonage included the right to
win and remove sand. In 1942 (before the community‟s dispossession of
its rights) sand was included in the definition of base minerals in the Base
Minerals Act 39 of 1942.16 In 1991, the definition of „mineral‟ in the
Minerals Act 50 of 1991 specifically included „sand‟ and from that time
the mining of sand was regulated in the same way as other minerals. The
definition of „mineral‟ in s 1 of the MPRDA also includes sand as a
mineral. Even if the community that the Committee represents had
enjoyed rights to commonage that included the right to mine and remove

14 Agri SA – SCA paras 38 and 42.
15 Agri SA – SCA paras 38 to 48, which covered the situation from the earliest days until 1967 and the
enactment of the Mineral Rights Act 20 of 1967. The impact of the 1967 Act is traced in paras 53 to 61
and the different arrangement from 1991 in terms of the Minerals Act 50 of 1991, which vested rights
almost exclusively in the owner of the land where the mineral rights had not been separated from the
land and the holder of the mineral rights when they had.
16 Base minerals were there defined as „any mineral substance‟ with certain exclusions that did not
include sand.

sand,17 and they had not been dispossessed of those rights at an earlier
stage, from 1991 the right to mine sand on Erf 1197 would have vested in
the owner of the erf and not the community. So also, after the MPRDA
came into operation the right to mine sand would no longer have vested
in the owner of the erf or the community. If anyone wished to mine sand
on Erf 1197 they could only do so if they had the necessary mining right
granted in terms of s 23 of the MPRDA.

[32] It follows that whatever rights the community might have enjoyed
to mine sand on Erf 1197 prior to the dispossession of their commonage
rights, would in any event have been removed in 1991, even if that
dispossession had not occurred. And in 2004, when the MPRDA came
into operation, the situation under the 1991 legislation would have
changed again to take account of altered priorities in regard to mining in
South Africa. Even if, at any stage after that date, the community was
awarded ownership of Erf 1197 by way of restitution, that would not
carry with it a right to mine and exploit the sand on the property. Such a
right could only arise through the grant of a mining right in terms of the
MPRDA and, if that right had been granted to a third party, as was the
case with Maccsand, the community would not have been able to prevent
its mining activities. So the loss of the right to mine sand would have
occurred irrespective of the dispossession of the community‟s
commonage rights.

17 This would be a considerable extension of the conventional right of commonage. We have taken over
commonage rights from English law. They are ordinarily rights of grazing and pasturage, rights of
passage and recreation, the right to draw water and perhaps rights to gather firewood or wild plants.
Depending on the nature of the commonage and the community it served it might possibly extend to
growing crops. Commonage rights do not ordinarily extend to mining or quarrying. Chaplin v Grant
(1882) 3 NLR 78.

[33] Turning to the second point, whatever motives and purposes may
have underlain the Minerals Act 50 of 1991, they cannot be carried
forward and attributed to the MPRDA. This statute is, like the Act, a
measure aimed at remedying past discrimination. It is the product of a
democratic parliament operating in a constitutional democracy and the
legislative response to gross economic inequality in relation to the mining
sector. As such it is designed to facilitate equitable access to opportunities
in the mining industry.18 It is impermissible to treat such legislation,
passed after the advent of democracy and directed at remedying past
injustices, as having the effect of dispossessing the community of its
historic rights. It is also impermissible to treat it in the same way as the
racially discriminatory legislation of the past. The past dispossession
effected by racially discriminatory legislation is entirely different from
the impact at the present day of legislative measures enacted after 1994
by a democratic parliament. Where a claimant under the Act seeks
restitution of a right in land they cannot claim that the right be free from
the impact of current regulatory legislation enacted after the inception of
democracy. Nor can they demand that it be free of the impact of the
MPRDA and free of rights properly granted under it.

[34] The Act is intended to provide a means to remedy past
dispossession of land occasioned by racially discriminatory measures.
Once the wrong of the past is remedied the successful claimant is restored
to the right in land of which they were dispossessed, but they must
exercise it in the legal environment that now exists. That environment is
one in which ownership of land carries with it no right to exploit minerals

18 Agri SA – CC para 1. Minister of Mineral Resources and Others v Sishen Iron Ore Co (Pty) Ltd and
Another [2013] ZACC 45; 2014 (2) SA 603 (CC) para 47.

situated on or under the land. It is also one in which others may acquire
and exercise such rights without the consent of the owner of the land and,
a fortiori, without the consent of persons holding rights less than
ownership.

[35]  The Committee‟s argument was based on the proposition that
mining rights stood on the same footing as, for example, a registered long
lease or usufruct. I agree with counsel‟s submission on behalf of
Maccsand that this is a false analogy. A mining right under the MPRDA
may, by virtue of the statute, enjoy the status of a limited real right in the
minerals to which it relates, but in substance it is no more than a licence
to conduct the mining activities identified therein in terms of the right and
in accordance with the MPRDA. As such it bears a close similarity to
other licences such as liquor licences, as to which Innes J said in Fick v
Woolcott and Ohlsson’s Cape Breweries:19
„Now, such a licence authorises the sale of liquor by the holder upon specified
premises, for consumption there. It is a privilege granted to a particular person to sell
liquor at a particular place. And the law attaches the greatest importance, and provides
for the strictest supervision, in regard to both these elements. … No person can own a
licence save as the Statute permits … Nor has the holder any such vested right in the
permission to sell, as to entitle him to claim that it shall be prolonged beyond the
currency of the licence. At its expiration, he must apply for a renewal, the grant of
which, though in the absence of special circumstances generally accorded, is entirely
at the discretion of the Licensing Court. Moreover, the privilege which he enjoys is
purely personal; it involves the exercise by the authorities of a delectus personœ, so
that he would have no power to assign his licence, were there no statutory provision
for its transfer. He can only deal with it in such a manner as the Ordinance prescribes
… And the law provides that the transfer of a licence can only be effected by the
authority which sanctioned its issue.‟

19 Fick v Woolcott and Ohlsson’s Cape  Breweries Ltd 1911 AD 214 at 229-230.

[36] Subject to appropriate linguistic adjustment that seems to me to
encapsulate the position in respect of mining rights under the MPRDA.
They are licences given in terms of that statute. They must be exercised in
accordance with their terms and the MPRDA itself. They are subject to
strict regulatory oversight and they attach only to the person to whom the
right is issued. They involve a delectus personae and can only be
transferred in accordance with the provisions of the MPRDA. They do
not vest in the holder by virtue of ownership of land, but in consequence
of a grant by the Minister in accordance with the requirements of the
MPRDA. They cannot be created by agreement as can leases and
usufructs. Seen in that light the similarity arising from their being
described as limited real rights in minerals is limited.

[37] In my judgement therefore even if the Committee is entitled to
receive title to the disputed erven in satisfaction of its claim for restitution
of the commonage rights of which the community was dispossessed, that
will not, for the reasons given above, afford it any right in relation to the
mining of sand on Erf 1197. Nor will it entitle it to interfere with the right
that Maccsand has to mine Erf 1197 in terms of a mining right under the
MPRDA.

Result
[38] In the result the appeal must fail. However, something must be said
about the terms of the order granted by Mpshe AJ. It was in the form of a
declaratory order but it left the offending prayers in place as well as the
allegations in the particulars of claim on which those prayers were based.
That is undesirable and an incorrect approach to the case from a
procedural perspective. The LCC was adjudicating a special plea. In

substance it held that the special plea should succeed. As there are other
issues in the case the litigation will have to proceed on those issues. But
the issues surrounding the special plea are no longer part of the case.
Accordingly the allegations in relation thereto and the prayers to which
the special plea was directed should be struck out. It will to that extent be
necessary to amend the order of the LCC.

[39] One last point relates to costs. The approach of the Department is
that it is dealing with a community that claims to have been dispossessed
of its rights by racially discriminatory legislation in the past. It is a poor
community and its claim is in significant respects opposed by the
Department. In those circumstances we were informed by Mr Budlender
SC, and this was confirmed by Mr Rosenberg SC for the Committee, that
the costs of the Committee are being borne by the Department and that as
a result in earlier litigation, of which apparently there has been a
considerable amount, Maccsand has in certain instances had its costs paid
by the Department on behalf of the Committee. In those circumstances
Maccsand sought an order for costs, including the costs of two counsel,
and submitted that the Biowatch principle should be departed from. I
agree that this is justified and accordingly Maccsand‟s success will carry
with it an order for costs.

[40] I make the following order:
(a) The order of the Land Claims Court is altered to read as follows:
„The special plea is upheld and the following portions of the amended
particulars of claim are struck out, namely:  in para 16.1 the words
„exploited the mineral and natural resources of the commonage by
inter alia utilizing the mineral wealth of the sand dunes by extracting
limestone and utilizing and selling sand‟; in para 45 the underlined

words; paras 52(2) to 52(11) and 72; the underlined words in prayer
(a); and prayer (f).‟
(b) The appeal is otherwise dismissed.
(c) The Appellant is ordered to pay the costs of the First Respondent,
such costs to include those consequent upon the employment of two
counsel.

M J D WALLIS
JUDGE OF APPEAL

Appearances

For appellant:

S P Rosenberg SC (with him J Krige)
Instructed by:

Igshaan Sadien Attorneys, Cape Town
c/o Matsepes Attorneys, Bloemfontein
For first respondent:
G M Budlender SC (with him N Bawa SC)
Instructed by:

Cliffe  Dekker Inc, Cape Town
c/o Phatshoane Henney, Bloemfontein.
For second respondent: Kevin Warner
Instructed by:
The
State
Attorney,
Cape
Town
and
Bloemfontein.

Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa

MEDIA SUMMARY– JUDGMENT DELIVERED IN THE SUPREME
COURT OF APPEAL
From:
The Registrar, Supreme Court of Appeal
Date:
23 November 2016
Status:
Immediate
Please note that the media summary is intended for the benefit of the
media and does not form part of the judgment of the Supreme Court of
Appeal.
Macassar Land Claims Committee v Maccsand CC
The Macassar Land Claims Committee is a voluntary association
representing members of the community of Sandvlei, Macassar. It claims
that this community is descended from a group of freed slaves on the
farm Zandvliet and that, after they were freed, they enjoyed rights of
commonage over Zandvliet that were reflected in the title deed of the
farm. However, after the declaration of Macassar as a Coloured Group
Area in terms of the Group Areas Act 41 of 1950, the various erven that
incorporated parts of the commonage were transferred either to members
of the Coloured group or to the Community Development Board, a
statutory body. When this was done the references in the title deeds to the
land being or including commonage were deleted. As a result the
Committee claims that the community of Sandvlei was dispossessed of
their rights in the commonage in terms of a piece of racially
discriminatory legislation.
On 23 June 2003 the Committee launched an application before the
Land Claims Court (LCC), in terms of the provisions of the Restitution of
Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 (the Act), seeking restitution of a right in
land in respect of the commonage previously forming part of erven 1195,

1196, 1197, 1198 and 1191 Macassar. As part of the relief claimed it
asked that the LCC order that Maccsand’s mining right under the
Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (the
MPRDA) be expropriated and expunged. Maccsand and the government,
represented by the Department of Mineral and Energy, claimed that the
LCC’s powers of expropriation did not extend to expropriation of
Maccsand’s mining right.
The LCC upheld the arguments on behalf of the Department and
Maccsand. On appeal the Committee argued that the powers of the LCC
under s 35(1)(a) of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 (the
Act) to order expropriation of land or a right in land entitled it to order
the expropriation of Maccsand’s mining right. The SCA rejected this
argument for three reasons. First, it held that the LCC’s power of
expropriation could only be exercised in order to restore to a claimant
land or a right in land. As the Committee was seeking the return of a right
of commonage and not the restoration of the mining right the power of
expropriation did not extend thereto.
Second the SCA held that the Committee was not entitled to claim
more in terms of the Act than the right of which it had been dispossessed.
It rejected the contention that the power of the LCC to adjust a right in
terms of s 35(4) of the Act entitled it to claim the restoration of property,
as opposed to the right of commonage of which it claimed to have been
deprived.
Thirdly, the SCA held that even if the Committee’s claim was
construed as one for the restoration of land that did not entitle it to
restoration free from any burdens imposed upon the land under
legislation passed by a democratic government after 1994. It was
accordingly bound by the grant of rights to Maccsand under the MPRDA

and not entitled to seek their expropriation and expungement. Subject to
an amendment of the terms of the LCC’s order the appeal was dismissed.