Land reform: what you need to know

President Ramaphosa’s support for expropriation without compensation has the country talking. What does it entail and do you need to worry?

WILL it really happen? Will the government boot farmers off their land and turn productive farms, which in some cases have been in families for generations, over to new owners? And if you own a home in an urban area, how safe is your investment?

Since the wheels started turning in parliament to make land expropriation without compensation a reality, many property owners are feeling nervous.

But what does it mean exactly – who stands to lose and who will gain?

Several experts welcome the move, saying it’s long overdue, while others warn we risk going down the same road as Zimbabwe.

But everyone agrees on one thing: more clarity is needed on how it will be carried out.

We try to make sense of this hot-potato topic.

WHY NOW?

Land reform has been on the agenda since 1994 yet decades down the line little has been done to redress the imbalance of agricultural land ownership brought about by apartheid.

Working on the model of willing buyer, willing seller (with the government helping the new owner to buy land) change has happened at a snail’s pace.

In terms of official targets, by 2014 more than 30% of farmland should have been transferred to new owners – but according to government figures only roughly 8% has changed hands.

Little wonder people are angry. At the ANC’s elective conference in December things got so heated when the issue was debated it almost led to fisticuffs among delegates.

To restore unity and prevent the total collapse of the conference, which saw Cyril Ramaphosa voted in as ANC president, the party resolved to accept the principle of land expropriation without compensation – with the rider that it shouldn’t negatively impact food security in South Africa.

In his closing address to the conference Ramaphosa promised to lead the implementation of the policy. But there’s speculation he was strong-armed into adopting the controversial decision.

“I think he has a reserved opinion about it but the fact of the matter is his party supports the constitution being changed,” says Dr Piet Croucamp, an

independent political analyst.

Now Ramaphosa is under real pressure. If he fails to deliver on land reform it could count against him at the ANC’s next elective conference in 2022. But in all his statements on the subject he seems to be bending over backwards to appease all sides.

“There’s no need for anyone to panic and start beating war drums,” he said recently. “Farming activities must continue as normal and investment in land and farming must continue. There’ll be no smash-and-grab of land in our country. That we won’t allow.”

WHAT NEXT?

For better or worse, the wheel has started turning. While Ramaphosa was still finding his feet as president, EFF leader Julius Malema tabled a motion to kickstart the process that might pave the way for expropriation of land without compensation.

When it was put to a vote in parliament, MPs from the ANC and EFF and a few other parties voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion, it was easily approved.

It will now fall to a 24-member joint constitutional review committee,which includes representatives from all parties,