Parties share stance on expropriation of land without compensation

POLITICAL parties will, in the next few days, finalise their positions on land expropriation in the country, ahead of a meeting to discuss the matter.

Parties had been given until the first week of May to come up with their positions on changes to the Constitution, to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.

This comes as Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza announced in Parliament that some of the land belonged to traditional communities.

This followed questions put by DA MPs to Didiza, on the amount of land in the hands of traditional leaders.

In a written reply, Didiza said that in the Free State, about 140 000 hectares of land were held by government on behalf of traditional communities.

In the Eastern Cape, the government was holding 3.5 million hectares of land on behalf of traditional communities.

Didiza said that in Limpopo, about 2.9 million hectares were held by government on behalf of traditional communities.

In Mpumalanga, about 642 000 hectares of land were held by government for traditional communities.

In the North West there were 1.9 million hectares of land belonging to these communities, said Didiza.

In the Northern Cape there were 943 000 hectares of land held by government on behalf of traditional communities.

In KwaZulu-Natal, the Ingonyama Trust was holding millions of hectares land.

“About 2 883 720 hectares in KwaZulu-Natal are held by the Ingonyama, as trustee of Ingonyama Trust, on behalf of the communities that are listed in the schedule to the KwaZulu-Natal Ingonyama Trust Act, 1994.

“An additional amount of about 559 559 hectares are held by government on behalf of traditional communities in the same province,” she said.

Didiza said that in Gauteng, 20 000 hectares of land were held by government on behalf of traditional communities.

The list released by Didiza comes as the ad hoc committee on land expropriation will meet early in May to discuss the mandate of political parties on land expropriation.

The ANC and EFF want the expropriation of land without compensation.

But the DA and Freedom Front Plus are opposed to it. They have also threatened legal action if processes are not properly followed.

The ad hoc committee had over the last few weeks been conducting oral submissions by various stakeholders.

Some of the ministers, including Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille, and Didiza presented to MPs.

The government has appointed Deputy President David Mabuza to chair the inter-ministerial committee on land reform.

ARMAND HOUGH African News Agency (ANA) MEMBERS of the South African Cape Corps Military Veterans Association (SACCMVA) march through the streets of Cape Town to Parliament to hand over a memorandum of demands. The veterans say they want the same retirement benefits as other military personel. The SACCMVA is a military veterans organisation consisting of former members of the South African Cape Corps (SACC). The SACC consisted of brown/Khoisan soldiers who were part of the former South African Defence Force (SADF) from 1966 to 1989 and were deployed during the South African Border War. |