ANC veteran warns Afrikaners will not go down without a fight

The ANC’s 93-year-old anti-apartheid stalwart Andrew Mlangeni has reportedly warned that government’s land reform project could be ruinous if handled badly because of Afrikaners’ unwillingness not to “allow it to go ahead without a fight”.

The Sunday Independent reported that he made his remarks while speaking at an event in the Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, this weekend organised by the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation. President Cyril Ramaphosa was in attendance too.

Mlangeni told the gathering government “would get problems” if it was not “very careful with this problem”.

He advised that government should instead begin with radical land reform by first giving up its own land and redistributing that to people before taking it from Afrikaners. Mlangeni, a Rivonia treason triallist, was in full support of accelerated land reform, however.

At its 54th national conference in December, the ANC adopted a resolution to expropriate land without compensation, but with the caveat that this should not affect food security or the economy as a whole.

Ramaphosa has further told investors that land reform under him will actually enhance the country’s economic capacity and improve its attractiveness as an investment destination, though he has remained vague on the specifics of how this will happen.

He said they would not allow “smash-and-grab interventions”. However, there are some in his party who do not see it the same way.

Parliament is busy with a constitutional review process on section 25 of the constitution about whether the property clause needs to be amended.