Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Minister insists land reform is on the cards
MINISTER of Rural Development and Land Reform Maite Nkoana- Mashabane has insisted that the government will push through with the expropriation of land without compensation – as black people owned just 4% of the land.
This is despite a warning from other political parties that this would ruin the economy and detract foreign investors.
Nkoana- Mashabane said yesterday during her budget vote debate in the National Assembly that Parliament would continue with its process to determine if the constitution would be amended to allow for this.
She said the ANC was intent with its resolution, adopted at the national conference in Nasrec in December, as most of the land was in the hands of white people.
She said the audit done by the department last year found that black people, who formed the majority of the population, owned a tiny proportion of the land. But Thandeka Mbabama of the DA said the ANC was not interested in dealing with land reform as it spent R2.9bn on VIP protection for ministers and deputy ministers and just R2.7bn on land reform.
Sam Matiase of the EFF said the fact that the Constitutional Court referred the restitution of land rights bill back to Parliament for correction showed that the government had failed in some of the key areas of land reform.