Ramaphosa doubles down on land reform in Steve Biko address

President Cyril Ramaphosa affirmed the government’s commitment to land reform through land expropriation without compensation, according to a report on EWN.

The president made his remarks in an address delivered at the 19th Steve Biko Lecture at the University of Pretoria on Friday night.

During the address Ramaphosa said that land reform would be the only way to narrow the gap between the rich and poor and called on South Africans to unite behind this initiative.

“This is the moment that this country should come together and whether we are talking about land or opportunity, this is the moment that calls for people to act in solidarity,” Ramaphosa said.

The president also said that the best way South Africans could honour Steve Biko would be to unite across racial lines.

“It is this humanity that we must find and it is this moral compass that we must find if we are indeed to accede to the level to the level that Steve Biko wanted us to accede to,” he said.

Biko died 41 years ago from a massive brain haemorrhages resulting from brain injury after he was beaten up by five policemen while in detention in September 1977. There have recently been calls for the government to reopen the inquest into his death.

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