VIDEO| Land reform to be orderly, no land grabs – ANC

The ANC has assured South Africans that the land reform programme would be conducted in an orderly manner.

Both ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and the party’s head of policy Jeff Radebe stressed that nobody would be allowed to occupy land illegally. They reiterated President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address message that land grabs would not be tolerated.

The warning came as communities, with the assistance of the EFF, tried to occupy prime land in Midrand and Marlboro near Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, at the weekend. The illegal land occupations were stopped by the South African Police Service and metro police members.

Addressing the media at the launch of the ANC’s 54th national conference resolutions documents, Radebe said the party planned to hold a land summit, to be attended by all stakeholders, and workshops to explain the new ANC land policy.

The ANC national executive committee decided at its meeting in Cape Town at the weekend on steps that must be followed in the implementation of land expropriation. The workshops, to commence in April, would be used to explain the steps.

The ANC economic transformation committee, headed by Enoch Godongwana, and parliamentary portfolio committee would hold parallel consultation processes on the issue.

In one of its resolutions, the ANC said it would pursue the land reform programme as part of its radical socio-economic transformation. It adopted the expropriation of land without compensation policy to effect land reform and redistribution, which was criticised for moving at a snail’s pace.

The party conference resolved that the implementation of the policy must not undermine future investment in the economy, nor damage agricultural production and food security.

“Our intervention must also not cause harm to other sectors of the economy,” the party said in its resolution document released yesterday.

Radebe said countrywide workshops would be held to bring everyone up to speed with the ANC’s approach to land reform.

In the document, the party said its approach was based on increased security of tenure, land restitution and land redistribution.

The process would focus on government-owned land and the priority would be given to redistribution of vacant land, unused and under-utilised state land as well as land held for speculation.

The land said to be hopelessly indebted would also be redistributed.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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