ANC forges ahead with amendment on land expropriation

THE ANC insists it will support the amendment of the constitution to enable expropriation of land without compensation, despite warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that this will hamper the country’s investment drive.

Yesterday, the governing party reiterated that it was clear that South Africans wanted the country’s constitution to be amended to allow the expropriation of land without compensation.

This comes as the parliamentary review committee concludes its public hearings on the possible amendment of section 25 of the constitution.

The ANC’s head of economic transformation, Enoch Godongwana, said the party had made it clear after it adopted the resolution to expropriate land without compensation that it would consider “tampering” with the constitution if it became necessary to do so.

“Among other things, we said we are going to test that in court, and secondly we put in a proviso that in the circumstances, we will look at tampering with section 25 2(b).

“We said the constitution embodies our democratic values, and has got transformative impulses that we will use the constitutional review process to strengthen and clarify,” he said. Godongwana, speaking in the wake of the party’s national executive committee lekgotla, said it was clear through the land hearings that South Africans were in support of the amendment.

“We cannot ignore the voice of our people. We have watched the public hearings and we have met people in different places as part of our interaction with the people, and clearly there is an overwhelming view… If there should be clarity of purpose, we will do expropriation without compensation,” Godongwana said.

The IMF’s annual policy report on South Africa stated that while the country had to strike a balancing act in terms of deciding on which land would be redistributed, expropriating land without compensation would turn away investors.

“The ‘without compensation’ clause, which has accentuated uncertainty over property rights, is identified as a concern for investment,” the report said.

Godongwana said the ANC could not ignore that a number of people needed clarity, which had to be provided not only through legislation but also through the constitution.

“An investment community wants a legal framework that is clear.

“What we are trying to do for that community is to provide a legal framework that is going to be clear for everybody, that if you invest in South Africa, these are the rules.

“For the purposes of the IMF, it is useful to have clearcut rules of the game,” Godongwana said.

On Tuesday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa caused a stir when he publicly revealed that the ANC had decided to support the amendment of the constitution and interventions in the economy.

“It has become patently clear that our people want the constitution to be more explicit about expropriation of land without compensation, as demonstrated in the public hearings,” Ramaphosa said.