‘Pastor’s land plea like God had spoken to me’
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday warned that a retreat from land redistribution, including expropriation without compensation, would result in anger among young people and drive the country into chaos.
Ramaphosa issued a warning as he handed over 4 586 hectares of sugarcane and forest land to community members of KwaMkhanazi in Richards Bay. “Any failure on our part to reverse the injustices of our past and to raise the life prospects of young South Africans through the programme of land redistribution will result in social instability and economic decline, and this we cannot afford,” he said.
His warning was contrary to King Goodwill Zwelithini, who last week warned that expropriating whiteowned land would drive farmers out of the country and lead to hunger.
Ramaphosa told community members in a packed King Bhekuzulu Hall at the University of Zululand that the government would in the next few months engage in a massive land redistribution process across the country.
He said the handing over of the land in KwaMkhwanazi was “history in the making”. “We are also commencing a rolling mass land distribution programme in our country. The Mkhwanazi land is the first (under Ramaphosa’s tenure).
“There are 25 or 27 others who we are going to return land to. We are making sure that people get land through redistribution. Our people will also get land through expropriation of land without compensation and another process will involve expropriation with some measures of compensation,” he said.
Ramaphosa said handing over the land was his response to a plea by local pastor Collins Dlomo, who approached him during a Good Friday church service to sign off the claim that had stalled for years. “When he used his platform, it was like God was talking to me in person,” he said.
Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said there were 422 million hectares of land to be redistributed in the next few months across the country. The government had availed R1.3 billion to support communities to operate businesses on the land.