EFF STATEMENT ON CYRIL RAMAPHOSA MALICIOUS MISREPRESENTATION OF EFF POSITION ON LAND AND STATE CUSTODIANSHIP
Thursday, 03 June 2021
The EFF strongly condemns Cyril Ramaphosa deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the EFF position on land and state custodianship. During Ramaphosa post-Budget Vote Question and Answer session held in Cape Town with journalists, he maliciously indicated that the EFF position on land custodianship is equal to the nationalisation of land.
This is part of a coordinated and desperate attempt to mislead people and downplay the significance of the process in its final stages in Parliament to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for expropriation of all land without compensation into the custodianship of the State.
Ramaphosa was responding to the CIC input during the Parliament debate of Presidency Budget Vote held on Wednesday. The CIC said
“As the EFF, we have made our submission. We want the Constitution to acknowledge that land, like mineral resources and water, is a natural resource and the common heritage, which belong to all our people. We must expropriate all land and place it under the custodianship of the democratic State. Custodianship is not the same as nationalisation. When we talk about nationalisation, the State takes control of whatever assets and the state use whatever is nationalised for the collective benefit of the population. However, when we talk about state custodianship, the State does not take the land to use it.
Instead, the land is only in the State's custody as a conduit or to facilitate for our people to access land. With the land in the State's custody, we will have strong, clear and confident legislation on land tenure to protect our people from corrupt and scrupulous officials. We are not talking about the expropriation of houses. People continue to have full rights to their own homes and other properties build on the land.
With the land in the State's custody, people will apply for the land they want to use, use it or if they can't use it, then allow others who can use it to do so. This is the most practical way to address the land question and ensure that even those who want to invest in businesses with security can do so with certainty. We are already doing this in special economic zones. We have said many times before and we will repeat it here that we as the EFF will not vote fora sellout amendment which still speaks of compensation."
This point to our concern raised before that Ramaphosa does not listen to Members of Parliament during debates and question sessions in Parliament. More significant and highly concerning is that Ramaphosa and the ruling party participated in the process to amend Section 25 of the Constitution with a predetermined outcome in mind because they were bluffing about the land question. This is despite submissions by hundreds of people, including members of the ruling party, who emphatically called for land expropriation without compensation. This is a knee-jerk reaction by Ramaphosa and the ruling party as their hand was forced into the process by the EFF motion tabled in 2018 in Parliament.
The EFF has firmly articulated its position to the Ad Hoc Committee tasked with amending Section 25 of the Constitution and the members of the ANC delegation during bilateral meetings. We are not going to compromise and vote for a sellout amendment that still speaks of compensation. Ramaphosa thinks he can implement a successful land redistribution programme that will address historical injustices through land donated by beneficiaries of land obtained through theft and genocide. This is a sign of how little Ramaphosa thinks of land hunger amongst Black people and the need for restorative justice.
Issued by the EFF, 3 June 2021
