1. Introduction More than 3.5 million people are estimated to have been removed from their land under colonial and Apartheid rule between 1913-1994 (Surplus People Project, 1983). The democratic South Africa after 1994 inherited a poor mapping record of black settlements and there is no comprehensive dataset on forced removals (Stickler, 1990; Weiner & Harris, 2003).  This gap in reliable information about forced removals forms a challenge for the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights (‘Commission’). The Restitution programme: restores rights in land or provides compensation to those that have been removed from their houses/lands through racial laws between 1913 - 1994. People were initially able to submit their claim between 1994-98; in 2014 the Restitution programme reopened for claimants to lodge their land claim. Resolving land claims depends on evidence of where people resided and their forced removals.Restitution programme This poster proposal presents the preliminary results of a data assembly and mapping exercise of land claims and forced removals in South Africa. It is the first time that data on forced removals has been assembled and mapped at this scale. The objectives are: 1. Generating improved management information about land claims and forced removals. 2. Assessing where new claims can be expected. 3. Plan logistics and communication for the re- opening of the Restitution programme since July 2014. 4. Improving the research of current and future land claims. This project was formulated from a policy and implementation context rather than an academic framework. Materials and methods 1.Largely non-digital and narrative available data about forced removals from collected reports, studies and archival material (non-exhaustive). 2.This was digitalised into a standardised template per province according to 3 removal categories that were identified for this exercise: a) Black spot removals: former black-owned freehold land in “white South Africa”. b) Betterment scheme removals: forced villagisation within the ‘Homelands’, i.e. territories identified for black populations. c) Other removals: all other categories of removals (incl. urban, informal settlement, labour tenants). 3. The datasets focus on: a) category of removal b) number of removals per local municipality c) number of households removed 4.All the removal locations were verified. This was one of the main challenges, given the inadequate historical data on black settlements and forced removals (see introduction). Various information sources were applied incl. cadastral information, list of municipality name changes, GIS-tool combining various governmental databases with place names. 5.Afterwards, all the data was mapped by geo-spatial services of the DRDLR. Conclusions The produced maps and datasets provide information and visualise: 1) existing data from the Commission on settled and outstanding claims per local municipality 2) show what type of removals have taken place where, for the first time. This information can be highly valuable to the Commission at national and provincial levels for the following purposes: 1.Targeted communication on the reopening of the Restitution programme. 2.Logistical planning for the reopening of the Restitution programme, in order to reach all potential claimants. 3.Facts-based allocation of resources between the provinces for comprehensive Restitution support. 4.Planning of research on outstanding claims. 5.Strategy for the research of future claims, esp. developing a strategy for a shift towards area- based research (researching per removals area vs. per claim), which would entail a significant efficiency gain. Literature cited Stickler P. J. (1990) Invisible towns: A case study in the cartography of South Africa. GeoJournal, 22 (3), pp. 329-333 Surplus People Project (1983) Forced Removals in South Africa: The SPP Reports Volume 1, General Overview. Cape Town: Surplus People Project. Weiner, Daniel and Harris, Trevor M. (2003) Community-integrated GIS for Land Reform in South Africa. URISA Journal, 15 (2), p. 61-73. Visualising South Africa’s past injustices – datasets and maps of forced removals Results 1.Maps on forced removals according to the three categories: ‘Black spot’, ‘Betterment scheme’ and ‘Other’ removals: -Provincial intensity maps for each of the three removal categories, all indicating the intensity of no. of removals and minimum no. of households removed per local municipality (27 maps) -Provincial intensity maps with all removals combined (9); provincial maps with all removals combined, including locations (9); national map of all removals combined, including locations (1) 2.Maps on land claims processed between1994-2015 -National intensity maps on: outstanding claims, settled claims and newly lodged (since July 2014) claims per local municipality (3) -Provincial intensity maps on settled claims per local municipality (9) -Provincial intensity maps on outstanding claims per local municipality (9) 3.Provincial datasets with forced removals data (9) 4.This is the first time that data on forced removals has been assembled and mapped at this scale. Some samples of the produced maps: Figure 1: concentration of outstanding claims from first lodgement round (1994- 98) per local municipality; dark red indicates a high amount of outstanding claims per local municipality while light pink indicates very few outstanding claims. Figure 2: draft map of Betterment scheme removals in the Eastern Cape province. The colour intensity indicates a high number of forced removals per local municipality and the green shapes indicate the min. number of families removed. Janssens, Sara; Namukasa, Priscilla; Sinovich, Irene & Waeterloos, Evert Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR, South Africa) - Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights and Belgian Development Agency (BTC) Sara.Janssens@drdlr.gov.za