Mashaba offers land reform solutions
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba says he supports land expropriation and redistribution, but he believes the Constitution in its current form is not an impediment to this.
He sought to clarify his stand on the land issue after President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, praised his plans to expropriate buildings in the inner city for affordable accommodation.
Ramaphosa said it proved the motion passed in Parliament, which set the constitutional review committee the task of determining how section 25 of the Constitution could be amended to allow for expropriation without compensation, was the correct one.
However, Mashaba said Ramaphosa misrepresented the city’s position. He said he was in support of land restitution and land redistribution as those were efforts that sought to undo “the terrible legacy of forced land dispossession, which still reverberates in our society today through unequal spatial developments”. However, he said this was the only thing he and Ramaphosa agreed on.
“I do not believe a constitutional amendment is required to achieve land reform, and I do not support expropriation without compensation.
Mashaba said the work the city was planning to do in the inner city was proof of the many mechanisms available to ensure that poor residents were provided with affordable housing in safe and secure communities.
He said it was common knowledge that Johannesburg was facing a housing crisis, as the city had an estimated 300,000 housing unit backlog and 158,000 individuals were on the housing waiting list. Mashaba said by the end of 2017 265 alleged hijacked buildings had been reported to the city.
The mayor said it was vital to find new and innovative ways to tackle the crisis as part of the commitment to “pro-poor development and meaningful redress”. Mashaba said the city planned to use the existing legal framework to expropriate hijacked and derelict buildings to develop quality low-cost housing, student accommodation and affordable rental space.
He said where the owners of hijacked buildings could not be located, the city intended to bring an application for a declaratory order to deem that the property had been abandoned and directing the registrar of deeds to register the property in the name of the state.
Where owners could be found, the city would consider entering into compliance agreements. If the owners, however, did not want to co-operate, the city would start expropriation proceedings.