ANC says it’s not relying on land expropriation to win elections

The ANC’s land reform guru, Ronald Lamola, is warning that land expropriation without compensation is not the panacea for all transformation problems and that it will not result in the majority of black people owning land overnight.

Lamola, who was speaking during a briefing by the ANC’s economic transformation subcommittee at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg yesterday, pointed out that land expropriation was nothing new. It had previously happened after 1994, under the first democratic government and under apartheid authorities in terms of the 1975 Expropriation Act.

Lamola said the difference between the previous approach and the current one was that the former provided for compensation and the new one did not.

“Land expropriation had been happening, but with compensation at market value. Much land had been expropriated under the ANC, including prior to the construction of the Gautrain when land owners or home-owners were paid market-related prices for their properties.”

There might be areas where issuing title deeds would work, he said, especially in the case of communal land. Currently there was no individual land ownership because the land was under the custody of a traditional leader. The lack of individual property ownership prevented residents in communal setups from using land as a guarantee or security to obtain a loan.

Lamola said expropriation would require communal land under traditional authorities, including that under the Ingonyama Trust in KwaZulu-Natal, to be governed by legislation to ensure order and fairness. He dismissed claims that the ANC was using land expropriation without compensation for electioneering purposes.

He and the ANC’s department of information and communications head, Nkenke Kekana, stressed the party could not afford to tap into populism to handle the land question. But they said opposition parties, such as the Economic Freedom Fighters, were using the issue to garner support for the May 8 national election.

Lamola said the ANC had taken up the land issue because it was a national imperative.

“If the land was an electioneering issue, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) would have been in power long ago, because it was the only party that had land on top of its agenda in 1994,” he said.

The fact that the PAC remained on the political sidelines or failed to gain enough support to enable it to attain power was an indication that land reform could not be used for electioneering. It was a necessary part of redressing past injustices, Lamola said, announcing that private landowners in Rustenburg in the North West province had donated land to enable land expropriation to take place without hindrances.

At its 2017 national conference, the ANC resolved to implement land expropriation without compensation, but pledged it would not negatively affect food security and economic growth. Land owned by the state was the first that would be released, while private land would in some cases be expropriated and the owners would not receive compensation.

“Without recognition of the property rights of all our people, we will not overcome inequality.

“Our policies must provide access to land both as a productive resource and to ensure all our citizens have a secure place to live. The crippling impact of the past policies demand the urgent implementation of a national programme of land reform and distribution,” the party said in its 2019 election manifesto.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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