Land Disputes Settlement Act 1975.

This Act deals in a comprehensive manner with the settlement of disputes regarding disputes as to interests in customary land, or as to the position of boundaries of any customary land by adjudication or alternative dispute resolution.Its 75 sections are divided into 7 Parts: Preliminary (I); Provincial Land Disputes Committees (III); Mediation of land disputes (IV); Local Land Courts (IV); Provincial Land Courts (V); Offences (VI); Miscellaneous (VII).“Land” includes: a) a reef or bank; (b) a house or other structure built on land or over water; (c) things growing on land or in water over land, earths and minerals on or under land; and (d) an interest in land. The Head of State may except certain disputes from the application of this Act pursuant to section 4 and the Act shall not apply to disputes whether land is customary land or not and to land to which Part IV of the Land Groups Incorporation Act 1974 applies. A Provincial Land Disputes Committee is established for each province under section 5. A Committee shall (a) declare Land Mediation Areas under section 9; (b) declare Land Mediation Divisions under section 10; (c) appoint Land Mediators under section 11; and (d) approve the appointment of Local Land Magistrates under Section 22(2) (sect. 7). Land Mediation Areas shall be declared on request of the local community and a Committee may divide a Land Mediation Area into Land Mediation Divisions. Powers and functions of Land Mediators are set out in section 15. Ad-hoc mediators may be appointed under section 16. Section 17 and following set out the procedures of mediation. The Minister may, by notice in the National Gazette, establish a Local Land Court or a Provincial Land Court in and for a province specified in the notice (sects. 21 and 45). Section 26 defines the general jurisdiction of Local Land Courts and section 29 defines ancillary jurisdiction. Section 30 concerns preventive jurisdiction of magistrates. Other provisions of Part IV concern practice and procedure of Local Land Courts and Orders. Section 50 defines the practice, procedure and powers of Provincial Land Courts. A Provincial Land Court has jurisdiction to hear and determine appeals from a decision of a Local Land Court where the land in dispute is situated wholly or partly within the area of the Provincial Land Court.

Implemented by: Land Disputes Settlement Regulation 1975. (2006)