Expropriation may become law

LAND: ANC TO PUSH FOR AMENDMENT OF CONSTITUTION ‘Our people want constitution to be more explicit about expropriation without compensation.’

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced late last night that the ruling ANC will push ahead with plans to amend the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said late last night that the ruling ANC will push ahead with plans to amend the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.

The comments come after the ANC said in May it would “test the argument” that land redistribution without compensation is permitted under current laws, a move that would have avoided the risky strategy of trying to change the constitution.

In a recorded address to the nation on television, Ramaphosa said: “It has become pertinently clear that our people want the constitution to be more explicit about expropriation of land without compensation as demonstrated in the public hearings.”

He said this will first have to go through parliament. “The ANC will through the parliamentary process finalise the proposed amendment to the constitution that outlines more clearly the conditions under which expropriation of land without compensation can be effected.”

Ramaphosa said ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule would be providing further clarity and detail to media today on what had been resolved at the party’s two-day lekgotla.

Most land remains in white hands, making it a potent symbol of lingering inequalities 25 years on from the end of apartheid.

Since white minority rule ended in 1994, the ANC has followed a “willing-seller, willing-buyer” model whereby the government buys white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks. Progress has been slow. The ANC has said it will not pursue land reform in a way that threatens food security or economic growth.

Although the ANC officially agreed to make land expropriation without compensation part of its policy at its elective conference in December, it has been investigating the “modalities” of how this will be done, while parliament conducts public hearings into the issue after a motion was passed in parliament to change the constitution.

Earlier this year, the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces voted to ascertain whether a review of Section 25 of the constitution and other clauses are necessary to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation.

The public hearings, which are currently on in the Western Cape, form part of the review process. – Reuters