Owners, businesses donate land to the state
THE ANC has revealed that big businesses and private landowners have made huge donations of land to the state for human settlements and small scale farming.
Ronald Lamola – a member of the ANC economic transformation sub-committee – made these disclosures when the economic transformation committee was briefing the media at Luthuli House yesterday on their plans to implement the ANC manifesto ahead of the May 8 national elections.
He was responding to a question related to when the ANC would implement its programme of expropriation of land without compensation.
In his reply, Lamola said the expropriation process has been on the cards. He cited the settlement the government had to undertake to ensure the smooth construction of the Gautrain railway and stations, saying that was done in terms of the Expropriation Act of 1975.
However, Lamola said since the land expropriation without compensation process unfolded last year, various private individuals and companies have donated land to the government.
“One such donation is large tracts of land donated by one of the big companies in the mining town of Rustenburg. The land donated is close to the workplaces of the land recipients. It is also close to the Rustenburg central business district.
“Already private companies and the Rustenburg Local Municipality have provided bulk water infrastructure, roads and electricity in the area,” Lamola said.
The land donation in Rustenburg was among the many offers made by various companies and individuals in the country.
He also made an appeal to local residents and landowners to comment on the gazetted Expropriation Bill before it is turned into law.
“This debate presents an opportunity for a new, reinvigorated drive for meaningful and sustainable land reform.
“Our commitment to land reform is to fulfil an undertaking that the founders of our movement made over a century ago.
“It is an undertaking that is underpinned by that constant surge of our ancestral memory that continues to run through our veins,” Lamola said.
He said the ANC was giving its dedicated attention to the fundamental task, saying it was because the resolution of the land question in South Africa was central to the “achievement of a national democratic society”.
“Without the recognition of property rights of all our people, we will not overcome inequality.
“Our policies must provide access to land both as a productive resource and to ensure that all our citizens have a secure place to live.
“The crippling impact of past policies demands the urgent implementation of a national programme of land reform and redistribution,” he said.
However, he warned that land expropriation without compensation must take into account the need to maintain food supplies and to provide equitable and orderly procedures so as to ensure that the “transition is as smooth as possible”.
According to Lamola, there was evidence that if expropriation was appropriately carried out land reform would add to food security, agricultural productivity and employment.