Mngxitama accuses Ramaphosa and Malema of lying about land

Black First, Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama has penned an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa and EFF leader Julius Malema in which he expresses his view that “parliament’s resolution on land expropriation without compensation” is “nothing but a colossal political fraud”.

Mngxitama urges the two leaders to “muster enough courage to tell the nation the truth”, which he believes is that they are attempting to “string the landless poor along until the 2019 elections and get their votes with empty promises”.

“Just like how pastors feed expectant and desperate members of their congregations dog meat and rats, politicians gave the landless and hungry empty promises,” Mngxitama writes.

The BLF leader says his mistrust for both the president and the EFF leader, whose party is believed by some to have driven the ANC towards adopting the policy of land expropriation without compensation, was “triggered” by a parliamentary notice that a report on the recent public hearings on the issue would be delayed pending further hearings. The report was initially meant to come at the end of August and was then delayed until the end of September.

Mngxitama expresses his view that the land hearings are a “a bogus process”, a theory he has advanced before.

“You both actually never wanted to amend the constitution to give land back to the poor. What you really want are votes,” he says.

These are familiar views from the BLF leader, who in September expressed similar ideas while making oral presentations in parliament on the possible amendment of section 25 of the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.

Mngxitama questioned why the ANC and EFF had not used their two-thirds majority in parliament to align the recently withdrawn Land Expropriation Bill with their resolutions on land expropriation, rather than employing the delayed parliamentary process and holding public hearings.

“We are saying these delays are deliberate and a means to give an opportunity to land thieves like AfriForum so that they can have enough room to sabotage the whole process [and commit] to economic terrorism,” Mngxitama said at the time.

The letter can be read here.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Additional reporting by Makhosandile Zulu)