WORLD IN BRIEF : SOUTH AFRICA : Blacks Given 3 Years to Reclaim Land

South Africa’s Parliament approved the first major post-apartheid law giving thousands of blacks stripped of their land under apartheid three years to reclaim it. The Restitution of Land Rights Bill is the first legislation implementing President Nelson Mandela’s pre-election promise to redress the wrongs of nearly 46 years of apartheid. The bill needs only Mandela’s signature to put it on the statute books. It provides for a land claims court and a commission on the restitution of land rights. It gives blacks who were moved off their land in the racial segregation plans of previous white-minority governments three years to claim restitution and compensation.