Finer details of expropriation policy as clear as mud

“I myself don’t fully understand it, which is why there’s this consultative process under way,” he said.+

During his state of the nation address, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the government would accelerate the land redistribution programme.

“We will accelerate our land redistribution programme not only to redress a grave historical injustice, but also to bring more producers into the agricultural sector and to make more land available for cultivation,” Ramaphosa said.

Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies Professor Ruth Hall said it was unclear how the review committee planned on amending the constitution.

She said the constitution already allowed for expropriation without compensation.

“What the constitution says is that property can be expropriated in the public interest and that interest includes land reform. Compensation must be just and equitable. If it is just and equitable not to pay compensation, then presumably that is constitutionally allowed.”

Hall said there appeared to be an agreement between the EFF and the ANC “but I think what we’ll see as the review committee meets is that it’s a false consensus”.

“I think the EFF is actually wanting a process of the state becoming the custodian of all rural property and wants legislation that expropriates all rural land and puts it under the ownership of the state so that all owners become tenants.

“The ANC means something entirely different by this motion and it’s become clear from what Ramaphosa said that expropriation without compensation should be one of the mechanisms at the government’s disposal,” she said.

She said the government needed a better and much clearer policy as well as functional institutions and law that required the state to promote equitable access to land.

Speaking outside of the National Assembly after their motion was passed, EFF leader Julius Malema said that no one would lose their house or flat and no one was going to lose his or her factory or industry.

EFF general secretary Godrich Gardee said expropriation of land without compensation meant that everyone had the right to own land and occupy it provided they had use for it and if a person no longer had interest in occupying and using it, the land would revert to the state.

“Land sitting without being used must be given to those who want to occupy it and be productive.”