DA and EFF at odds over land expropriation Malema warns of threat to coalition alliance after Maimane speaks against lack of compensation
THE government’s plans to expropriate land without compensation have pitted the EFF and the DA against each other in parliament‚ threatening the parties’ alliance pact at municipal level.
The divisions emerged yesterday during the parliamentary debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address‚ which he delivered on Friday.
Speaking during the debate‚ DA leader Mmusi Maimane suggested that expropriation of land without compensation was at odds with the constitutionally enshrined rights to private property ownership‚ while EFF leader Julius Malema said Maimane’s view could put their municipal cooperation at risk of collapse.
Ramaphosa on Friday announced that the government would this year be implementing the policy of land expropriation without compensation, following the adoption of such a resolution by the ANC at its national elective conference in December.
But Maimane has urged Ramaphosa to reconsider the policy on fast-tracking land reform‚ saying there were different ways of tackling the issue.
“We can speed up land reform by rooting out corruption and inefficiency. We can have a thriving‚ growing‚ diverse agricultural sector whose wonderful produce fills the shelves all over the world‚” Maimane said.
“But we absolutely cannot have this if farmers do not know if or when their land will be taken from them without any compensation.
“Expropriation of land without compensation is incompatible with a growing‚ flourishing economy. You can have one or the other‚ but never both.”
We can speed up land reform by rooting out corruption