1 July 2003.

Not with HPD.  

There are two main reasons for the disproportion between the number of claims decided and the number actually implemented:

1) About 50% of successful claimants have not reached a final decision on what they want to do with their property. This trend manifested itself significantly after the March 2004 violent events. Effectively in these cases a decision has been granted and the Directorate is ready to implement it but, for different reasons that are often connected with regional political and economic conditions, the claimant does not inform us about what s/he intends to do. (For details on options open to successful claimants, please refer to the FAQ entitled ‘claimants options after a decision?').

2) Successful claims are often the subject of reconsideration request filed by an unsuccessful party to a claim and this effectively means that the claim has to be reopened. Like any other institution of its sort, and in accordance with basic principle of fairness of procedures and the rule of law, if a party does not agree with the terms of a decision granted by the HPD/HPCC, s/he may request a reconsideration of the decision. Pursuant to the applicable law,a reconsideration request may be filed with the directorate whenever a party considers that s/he is in possession of legally relevant evidence, which was not considered by the HPCC when deciding the claim; or - where they believe that there was a material error in the application of the regulation that sets down the rules of procedure and evidence of the HPD/HPCC. .  

The HPD has received over 29.000 claims. Each claim is individually researched, all parties have the legal right to be notified and reply, and the documents must be verified to ensure that they are authentic and confer the legal rights alleged by the parties to the claim. further,the length and complexity of the claims process also depends on the nature of the claim itself and whether or not it is contested. Due to the large number of claims received, the HPD is not in position to predict when the HPCC will decide on a particular case. However, the HPD and the HPCC resolve an average of 1.000 claims per month and it is estimated that by the end of August 2005 all claims will have been resolved and that by the end of the year the implementation process will also be completed.   

At the end of its claim intake period, on 1 July 2003, the HPD had received approximately 29.000 claims. It was clear at that early stage that as the volume of claim was so high, and in the view of the resources available, that the processing of claims in chronological order would lead to a violation of fundamental rights such as access to court and the right to have ones determined within a reasonable period of time. The method applied by the HPD resulted in balancing the interest of the individual in having his/her claim processed in a timely manner, against the interest of the community as a whole in having all of the claims resolved as expeditiously as possible. In other words, if the HPD had dealt with the claims intake chronologically, those who had filed their cases at an early stage would have received priority. However, the general interest and the common good of the community would have been damaged because it would have take substanially longer than 5 years to have resolved the entire caseload. In order to make on board and respect the competing fundamental rights it was necessary for HPD to apply so-called mass claim procedures utilized by a number of other similar ad hoc Commissions. In this regard HPD’s processing of claims follows a functional selection of cases that groups, processes and decides on claims with similar characteristics. The HPD commenced operations at full capacity in late 2000 and it is expected to complete its mandate and conclude operations – returning all claimed properties to the lawful property right holders –- by the end of 2005. During this time the HPD will proactively have collected 29.000 claims together with supporting documentation and have mediated or adjudicated the disputes and implemented the decisions physically in the field. When the enormity and complexity of the task given to the hpd is measured against the time and resources made available to it to undertake and complete the task, the hpd will be characterized as a successful operation.