ANC SETS SIGHTS ON LAND REFORM Growth rate of 2.9% ‘possible’
THE ANC-led government will take an aggressive approach on land reform and redistribution this year.
This is according to the party's January 8 statement, delivered by President Jacob Zuma at the ANC's 105th birthday celebrations at a packed Orlando Stadium in Soweto, yesterday.
Zuma said it was “heinous” that the majority of South Africans continued to occupy only 13% of the land.
“It is time to return the land to our people,” he said.
While government’s land reform and redistribution programmes had yielded some successes since 1994, said Zuma: “large tracts of land still remain in the hands of very few people”.
“Too many of our people continue to suffer from the historic injustice perpetrated by the horrendous land dispossessions. We must show courage and determination to ensure that the land is returned to the people,” said Zuma, to the capacity crowd at the 40 000 seater venue.
A buoyant Zuma said the government would, this year, start expropriating land for public purposes and in the public interest within the confines of the Constitution.
“The peasantry is left with a shrinking land mass to eke out a living.
“We repeat that it is our duty to return the land to the people.
“The Constitution allows for the expropriation of land for public purpose and in the public interest.
“This year, we shall begin to utilise the Expropriation of Land Act to pursue land reform and land redistribution, with greater speed and urgency, following the prescripts of our Constitution.”
However, Zuma cautioned against “haphazard” land grabs, saying they would have a “negative effect on our ability to plan for the productive use of the land”.
Land ownership has been a thorny issue for years, with opposition parties such as Julius Malema’s EFF and the PAC accusing the ANC of lacking the political will to redistribute land to the landless black majority.
This announcement could be seen as an attempt by the ANC to silence its critics and reclaim its space in leading the land reform agenda.
Turning to mining, Zuma said the ANC would become more vigilant in ensuring that mining communities benefited meaningfully from mining activities within their areas.
He said the ANC would use a variety of state levers, including state owned enterprises, to stimulate the economy.
Zuma said the ANC was confident that a 2.9% economic growth target would be achieved this year.
“We are encouraged by the recent rise in the commodity prices and are relatively confident that our mining sector will begin to show improvement in the near future.
“The manufacturing sector can be a catalyst to transforming the economy and creating jobs.
“This is illustrated by the fact that this sector created more than 70 000 new jobs during the first six months of 2016” he said.
Zuma, who has been under pressure to resign from inside and outside of the ANC, appeared cheerful and delivered his speech with confidence.
The venue proved too small to accommodate the throngs of party supporters who braved heavy rains to attend.
Despite the Gauteng ANC having organised 800 buses to ferry supporters from across the province, Zuma’s backers successfully ensured that the president was cushioned from any hostility in a province where his popularity is at its lowest level.
They also bused in party members from pro-Zuma provinces such as Mpumalanga, Free State and the North West.
A buoyant Zuma walked into the stadium in the company of outgoing AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whose campaign to succeed Zuma received a boost this past weekend after the ANC Women's League officially endorsed her candidacy.
She is expected to go head to head with deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa at the ANC’s elective conference in December this year.
But Zuma warned ANC leaders not to impose leaders on party members, saying politics of slates continue to divide the ANC.
Zuma said his party had learnt valuable lessons from the humiliating losses it suffered in the recent local government elections where key metros fell into the hands of the opposition.
“The people have told us that we are busy fighting each other and we do not pay sufficient attention to their needs.
“Our own research and interactions with members of the ANC demonstrate clearly that the people abhor the apparent preoccupation with personal gain,” he said.