Trevor Manuel says it’s hard to sell SA amid uncertainty over land

Former finance minister Trevor Manuel, one of four investment envoys tasked with selling South Africa to potential international investors, said during a discussion at the Obama Foundation in Johannesburg on Wednesday that land was a “complex” and “unresolved matter”, Business Day reports.

Manuel, who served under presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, said explaining the ongoing land debate to potential investors had been tougher than expected.

The former finance minister stands alongside former Standard Bank CEO Jacko Maree, businesswoman Phumzile Langeni and former deputy minister of finance Mcebisi Jonas as those Ramaphosa has chosen to try to secure a target of $100 billion in investments over the next five years.

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According to Manuel, this task has been complicated by the fact that many of those he has approached have voiced concerns that the radical move towards land expropriation without compensation could harm property rights, the financial sector and food security.

Parliament’s review committee is currently touring the country to find out whether the public agrees that the constitutional changes should go ahead.

According to Manuel, government needs to listen to these opinions as well as draw on expert advice within a “rational, orderly and inclusive” process. Addressing the issue would require “outside agency, such as the judiciary”.

“Communicating this [issue], I think, is a bigger challenge than what we thought,” Manuel said.

Following South Africa’s transition to democracy, section 25 was added to the Constitution to uphold property rights. In this process, Manuel said, leaders and lawmakers “also recognised within that clause that some of the properties that people had accumulated in SA were by means not fair”.