‘Use municipal land to build homes’
LAND issues in urban areas should be addressed through releasing among other municipal land to build homes for people, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday.
Ramaphosa was delivering the ANC’s national executive committee’s January 8 statement in East London.
He said the issue of land in urban areas should be addressed as government owned a lot of land through various departments and municipalities, and that this land should be released to build houses on.
Ramaphosa said the ANC’s national conference last month decided that the historic injustice of land dispossession needed to be addressed with greater urgency. He said there had been overwhelming support at the conference that the ANC should pursue the expropriation of land without compensation.
“We will do so in a manner that not only meets the constitutional requirement of redress, but also promotes economic development, agricultural production and food security.”
Ramaphosa said corruption in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and other public institutions had undermined the government’s programmes to address poverty and unemployment, as well as weakened key institutions, discouraged investment and contributed to divisions within the ANC and the alliance.
The alliance was at its weakest at the end of former ANC president Jacob Zuma’s term as both the SA Communist Party and trade union Cosatu called for Zuma’s resignation amidst allegations of state capture.
“We also need to act with urgency and purpose to restore SOEs as drivers of economic growth and development. Several key SOEs are in financial distress, threatening not only their own operations, but the national fiscus,” Ramaphosa said.
He said many of the enterprises had experienced serious governance lapses and poor delivery of their mandate.
“These challenges have been exacerbated by state capture, through which billions of rands have been illegally diverted to individuals, Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa thanked Zuma for deciding to establish the judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.
He warned that anybody who would undermined the unity project, would be summoned to Luthuli House to explain, no matter how senior the member was. —