ANC to speed up land reform

THE ANC is set to convene an urgent special meeting of its national executive committee (NEC) to address areas identified as impeding “effective and speedy land redistribution”.

The ruling party was also talking to other former liberation movements on what needed to be done to expedite land reform, which had been progressing at a snail’s pace over the past two decades.

These were some of the decisions taken during the ANC NEC meeting held in Irene outside Pretoria at the weekend.

Briefing the media on its outcomes in Joburg yesterday, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party reiterated its January 8 statement that “our liberation remains incomplete, without the return of the land to the people”.

The masses were demanding “faster action on land restitution and redistribution” and the ANC had to accelerate such programmes within the existing legislative framework.

“We must also then practically identify areas which are an impediment to effective and speedy land redistribution,” he said.

Tardiness

“Consequently, the NEC resolved to convene an urgent special NEC meeting which will look at these matters and clarify itself on what must be done to strengthen our policy framework.

“Achieving this will require that, among others, we endeavour to unite former liberation movements and the dispossessed black majority for whom the resolution of the land question is central to their existence,” said Mantashe.

He said “tardiness” in implementing land reform had to be avoided at all costs.

The ANC has been criticised for not speaking with one voice on the critical land question.

President Jacob Zuma was accused of playing to the gallery when he told traditional leaders recently that some laws may have to be amended to allow for land expropriation without compensation.

His remarks on the matter came after the ANC was harshly criticised by its women’s league, among other structures, for the manner in which it dealt with the EFF’s motion to amend section 25 of the constitution to expropriate land without compensation.

Meanwhile, the NEC also came out against racism and crime in the country, with Mantashe saying the re-emergence of racially-based superiority and privilege, if left unchecked, “will derail our advance to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society, founded on basic human rights and the dignity of all”.