Cyril firm on land reform

SOUTH Africans opposed to sharing land with the landless must stand up and be counted, President Cyril Ramaphosa said as he defended the government’s intention to expropriate land without compensation.

In reply to a question in the National Assembly, Ramaphosa said the issue of land that had been “taken away by force from the majority of our people” by the apartheid government prior to 1994 remained “a deep wound inflicted on our people”.

Ramaphosa said the Freedom Charter stated that “the land shall be shared among those who work it”, and that landless South Africans would not relent on this demand.

“Our people must be able to share the land, and I’d like those who say the land must not be shared to stand up and say we are not prepared to share the land, because that is the most important, most reasonable demand from our people,” he said.

“They (the landless) are not saying we want land to the exclusion of everyone else.” Ramaphosa extended an invitation to critics, including those who have raised the alarm abroad, to join the debate on land reform so an all-inclusive solution to the divisive problem could be found.

“Our task, even for those who are seeking to go around the world to mobilise the international community against their own country, I want to say to you come back, let us sit around the table, let us find a solution on this issue of land.”

Violent clashes between the police and land invaders have taken place across the country over the past few weeks. Ramaphosa said this would not be tolerated.

“We will not allow anarchy and disorder in South Africa when it comes to resolving issues of land. Violence is not the way to resolve the land question at all.”

Ramaphosa said the need for land was not going away anytime soon. He had this message for land reform critics: “For people who think that the issue of land in South Africa will be swept under the carpet, I say ‘wake up, my friend, smell the coffee’ – it is not going to happen.”