The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform says that after damning findings of dodgy land deals by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) it had taken back 58 farms and some of the implicated staff had either resigned, retired or had been sanctioned.
Reacting to media reports that little has been done by way of corrective action since the report was handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa in March 2018, the department said it had moved to nullify bad deals and had acted against staff under its jurisdiction.
In a statement the department said: "In relation to the farms forfeited through the fraud and corruption activities, 58 farms worth R150 million have been returned to the state and a further 37 are under curatorship awaiting investigations to be concluded.
Upon conclusion of this process, the 37 farms will be returned to the state as well.
The department said disciplinary processes were at various stages with most of them concluded and sanctions made against the officials.
