ANC must avoid land-reform ‘pandemonium’: Joemat-pettersson

THE ANC must not create “pandemonium” among business and the public over land reform, says Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

“I don’t think we should create pandemonium or insecurity. There is no need for us to panic. Section 25 of the constitution has always been there and we shouldn’t create the impression that we are going to change the constitution,” she said on the sidelines of the ANC policy conference in Midrand yesterday.

“All we need to do is implement the constitution.”

She said that section 25 allowed the government to expropriate land with compensation.

This could be accomplished by “building the capacity of the state” and completing the land audit.

“The Polokwane (elective) conference took a decision that the land audit must be completed by the end of 2012. We are convinced that we will meet our deadline.

“Once it is there, we will have a clear picture on how to fast-track land reform.”

Sober

She said the commission debates on land had been “sober”.

“The impacts of decisions we take in those commissions will have an impact on the economy of the country. We are determined to protect food security.

“There is no way in which, as a country, we can go towards the centenary of the 1913 Land Act without having a definite and radical opportunity to fasttrack land reform.”

When the land-reform policy document was released in March, ANC head of policy Jeff Radebe said: “The recommendation in this document expresses the view that the current willing buyer, willing seller model tends to distort the land market through inflating the prices of land earmarked for restitution, and this has the dual effect of making land reform expensive, and delays the process of increasing access of the poor to land.”

In the document the ANC proposes introducing a valuergeneral’s office. The valuergeneral would set standards for valuation of land that involved fair compensation.

The land-reform commission was scheduled to report on its resolutions later yesterday afternoon.

The Freedom Front Plus was happy about the news.

“The FF+ welcomes the ANC commission on land reform’s decision not to nationalise land and that section 25 of the constitution will not be amended,” said the party’s parliamentary spokesman, Pieter Groenewald.

“Although section 25 of the constitution provides for the expropriation of land with compensation, the government should rather first intervene in the failed land-reform projects,” he said. – Sapa

“The first is he has to try to satisfy the power-hungry and unelected forces of Cosatu and the SACP. These forces helped bring him to power four years ago.

“Most people agree the policy conference is therefore, in fact, a proxy battle for the leadership of the ANC.

“Secondly, Mr Zuma and the government practise the art of ‘talking left, acting right’.

“The difficulty is that it gives false hope by suggesting the journey to full employment and prosperity can be seamless or made easily.

“The journey will be tough, and will require the full contribution of every citizen.”

Thirdly, Mazibuko said, there was the dawning reality in some sections of the ANC that Zuma’s administration had lost its way.

“The momentum of previous governments in working to banish poverty, joblessness and reduce inequality is gone,” Mazibuko said.

“Taken together, it is hard not to conclude that the ‘second transition’ is an attempt to disguise what the present government has failed to do.

“It would be far better to say: ‘This is where we are today. This is what we have done right, and what we have done wrong. What can we do to fix what is broken?’”