A report into the eviction of 800 families from Sanral-owned land in Lwandle, Cape Town, was handed to Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Wednesday.

Accepting the 296-page document from advocate Denzil Potgieter, who chaired the inquiry, set up by Sisulu shortly after the mass evictions in June this year, the minister said she would spend the next week studying it.

The week after that, it would be sent to Parliament's human settlements portfolio committee which would examine its recommendations.

Speaking at the handover, Potgieter said these included recommendations that "certain legal shortcomings" in various pieces of legislation dealing with the illegal occupation of land and evictions of people be fixed.

Also, that before issuing eviction notices, courts should take into account "the extent to which a property owner has taken steps to prevent unlawful occupation of property".

Potgieter said the report identified shortcomings in how authorities carried out the mass eviction.

He said the inquiry had enjoyed substantial public support, though the absence of both the provincial government and the City of Cape Town from the public hearings had "hampered" it.

"It is to be noted, however, that the refusal by the government of the Western Cape, particularly the provincial department of human settlements, and the City of Cape Town, to participate in the public hearings, has to an extent hampered the work of the inquiry."

Potgieter said both parties declined to accept an invitation to the public hearing, though they had sent written submissions.

The public hearings had gathered very valuable material for the inquiry.

"So it is in that sense we are saying that potentially there might have been further benefit if they had participated in that process."