PARLIAMENT RESOLVES ON EXPROPRIATION OF LAND WITHOUT COMPENSATION
The National Assembly today agreed to the principle of the expropriation of land without compensation within the context of ensuring food security, economic growth and radical economic transformation.
The amendments tabled by the ANC, as amendments to a motion by the opposition; resolved that the Constitutional Review Committee of Parliament, reviews Section 25 of the Constitution and other clauses where necessary, to sufficiently cater for the principle of land expropriation without compensation. The Constitutional Review Committee has been directed to prioritise this issue and report back to parliament by 30 August 2018.
This resolution by the National Assembly is in line with the resolution of the 54th National Conference of the ANC which resolved that the ANC should, as a matter of policy, pursue expropriation of land without compensation. Conference resolved that this should be pursued without destabilising the agricultural sector; without endangering food security in our country; and without undermining economic growth and job creation.
Further to this, the President of the ANC and the President of the Republic of South Africa, Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation Address, made a commitment that government would continue the land reform programme that entails expropriation of land without compensation, making use of all mechanisms at the disposal of the State. He further said it will be implemented in a manner that will increase agricultural production, improve food security, and ensure that the land is returned to those from whom it was taken under the brutality of colonialism and apartheid.
The Land, insisted the Freedom Charter, “Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It.” This meant that “restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it.”
The ANC in Parliament appreciates the need to take bold steps that will transform our economy including land ownership and reform. This resolution therefore heralds a new era of intensified land distribution to address the long standing national grievance of African people around land dispossession.
We look forward to the outcome of the Constitutional Review processes on the modalities of expropriation of land without compensation. As the ANC in Parliament, we will closely monitor this process.
Statement issued by the Office of the ANC Chief Whip, 27 February 2018
