Zuma wants ‘black parties’ to unite on land issue

Speaking at his annual address to the National House of Traditional Leaders on Friday, President Jacob Zuma once more struck a radical note.

He said it was time for black political parties in Parliament to unite on the land issue. This was despite his party, the ANC, having rejected an offer by the EFF this week, to join forces to change the constitution and make expropriation without compensation legal.

He said that the taking away of the land remained at the heart of problems for black people.

“The economy is not in our hands, we are not in control of economic power.”

“We have identified the weaknesses in [land reform]. Willing buyer, willing seller did not work. It made the state’s price tag an unfair process. In addition there are many laws dealing with land which cause confusion and delays.

“Land hunger is real.”

Zuma said last month that he was in favour of a legal change regarding land. He believes this is important for his agenda of “radical economic transformation” announced during his state of the nation address.

He also called on the support of traditional leaders to resolve the issue of land redistribution in South Africa.

The president said government doesn’t support illegal land grabs, and he urged traditional leaders to ensure this doesn’t happen where they are in charge.

EFF leader Julius Malema offered his party’s 6% of the national vote to the ANC earlier this week in parliament, saying that black people needed to unite in ensuring the constitution was amended.

“We all know that the Dutch gangsters arrived here and took our land by force. And the struggle has since been about the return of the land to the hands of rightful owners.

“Yet those who went to negotiate for our people during the [Codesa] negotiations sold out this fundamental principle, which constituted the struggle against colonialism.

“So those who claim to be radical enough, and who want radical change today, should actually be in the forefront of agreeing that this constitution must be changed to make it possible for our people to own the land.

“Black people … all of us … we need to unite and amend the constitution so that we can expropriate land without compensation. There’s no white person who will understand that clarion call because they don’t know the pain of being landless.

“Today the ANC should come with the EFF. There’s 6% available … we give it to you with the condition to amend the constitution and take the land.

“If you don’t agree with us today, it means you don’t agree with your outgoing president [Jacob Zuma] on the issue of land expropriation without compensation.”

ANC member of parliament Phumuzile Ngwenya-Mabila immediately said in her speech that the ruling party understood the history of “land dispossession”. However, they would not allow the EFF to to tell the ANC how to address it.

She contended that the idea of land expropriation without compensation remained unconstitutional, and also disagreed with the proposition by the EFF to amend section 25 of the constitution.

“We know the history of land dispossession. We also know we are going to address that. We are not going to be told what to do. We are not in alliance with anyone else. We are a ruling government.

“Expropriation must be subjected to just and equitable compensation as indicated in section 25 subsection 2 (b) of the constitution. The amount of which and the time and manner of payment of which have been agreed to by those affected or decided or approved by the court.”