LET’S FREE THE LAND
ANC’S new policy agenda
THE land question will decidedly move from political debate into the economic battleground in the economic transformation war.
This became clear when leaders of the ANC Economic Transformation Commission (ETC) engaged with organised business hosted by the Black Business Council (BBC) with Business Unity SA (Busa) in attendance, at the Moloko Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg this week.
Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti and ETC convenor Enoch Godongwane outlined land ownership as the party’s point of departure at the highly anticipated policy conference on June 26.
Nkwinti explained that the issue of land had been the source – and thus the core reason – for the liberation struggle. He lamented the lack of progress in effectively and judiciously resolving land reform and distribution since the advent of democratic rule in 1994.
“What we have experienced has been accumulation of land by dispossession,” he says.
“The legacy of land on the continent, and in our country has not been through discussion but [through] wars, which is uncivilised land ownership.”
He says since 1994 government has produced a litany of programmes to resolve the land question, but these ef forts were undermined by, among others, the constitution.
He argued that the question of “willing buyer willing seller”
might be irrelevant to the constitution as it was about “a paradigm ”.
“It is argued in some quarters that the market mechanism can resolve the land question. But they fail to recognise that the market mechanism assumes that all things are equal,” he says.
“It assumes that in South Africa apartheid and its land dispossession policies never existed. That is as wrong a postulation as can be.
“Against this backdrop, we are confident that all fair-minded South Africans will agree that a national grievance might require a constitutional amendment to bring about a just and equitable resolution.”
Godongwane outlined the findings of the research commissioned by the party into nationalisation of prime national assets.
He said the jury was still out as to what the party’s final position would be after the conference, but cited the importance of establishing a well-founded departure point for the anticipated robust debate.
He urges South Africans to be world-wise when engaging in such debates: “The structure of the productive forces worldwide was changing from the traditional bases in the West to Asia and the emerging economies.
“Our discourse must position us among the new driving forces of the global economy,” he says.
BBC secretary Sandile Zungu highlighted the organisation’s proposals to the ANC on new policies to create an enabling environment to advance black business.
“We would also like to have a minister for small business to drive the agenda to bring SME’s to the forefront of the economy, as one of the key outcomes after the ANC’s policy conference,” says Zungu.