{"id":120201,"date":"2018-08-15T18:47:39","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T16:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/anc-expediency-is-messing-up-south-africas-land-reform-process-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2018-08-15T18:47:39","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T16:47:39","slug":"anc-expediency-is-messing-up-south-africas-land-reform-process-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/anc-expediency-is-messing-up-south-africas-land-reform-process-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"ANC expediency is messing up South Africa’s land reform process | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANC expediency is messing up South Africa’s land reform process<\/a>: <\/p>\n

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is accused of pandering to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini (right) and other traditional leaders.<\/span> GCIS<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s highly likely that an amendment will be made to South Africa\u2019s constitution that will allow for land expropriation without compensation following a decision to do so by the ruling party the African National Congress (ANC). <\/p>\n

But the government hasn\u2019t got off to a good start in managing the process. It\u2019s clear that narrow party political considerations are driving decisions and that the ANC\u2019s political fortunes reign supreme. Principles and knowledge count for nothing in this game. <\/p>\n

This is clear from the way in which the ANC is mishandling the issue by flip flopping with ease on matters of principle. Four recent developments illustrate this. <\/p>\n

The first relates to the process of public consultation. On 14 March 2018, South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in Parliament that public consultations would be held so that citizens could have their say on the issue of land reform. But no sooner were the public hearings underway, than the president announced that in fact the ANC was preparing for a vote in parliament. This suggested that the consultation process was being declared null and void.<\/p>\n

Matters then deteriorated further. Soon after the announcement about the parliamentary vote, it transpired that 139 farms have already been earmarked for expropriation without compensation. This suggested that the parliamentary process on public hearings was being short circuited.<\/p>\n

The final flip flop has been the ANC\u2019s position on how land reform will affect communal land under the administration of traditional leaders. Here it\u2019s chopped and changed its position in a way that\u2019s clearly informed by its narrow party political interests. The ANC is clearly more concerned about keeping traditional leaders as its electioneering agents for the 2019 national elections rather than any consideration for the equitable distribution of land for poor rural South Africans.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that the process towards land expropriation without compensation is largely driven by the ANC political expediency. This could have devastating consequences for South Africa\u2019s economy. Key stakeholders need to shift their focus towards ensuring that land reform happens in an orderly way. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s happened so far<\/h2>\n

South Africans have been actively involved in public consultations on the issue of amending the property clause of the Constitution since the first sitting of a Parliamentary Committee chaired by Vincent Smith on 26 June 2018. <\/p>\n

The committee has been holding countrywide hearings. They have shown beyond doubt that land ownership is a highly charged subject. <\/p>\n

In addition to its hearings, the committee also received more than 700 000 written submissions on land expropriation.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa\u2019s announcement that the ruling party had decided that land expropriation without compensation would be handled through a Parliamentary process threw everyone off balance.<\/p>\n

Did this mean that the public hearings of Smith\u2019s committee have no standing in the eyes of the ANC leaders? Has the ANC\u2019s National Executive Committee and Ramaphosa already decided \u2013 without waiting for the parliamentary committee\u2019s report \u2013 what land should be targeted and what process should be followed?<\/p>\n

If the answer to these questions is yes, it makes a mockery of Ramaphosa\u2019s claim that an inclusive and consultative process would be followed.<\/p>\n

Traditional leaders<\/h2>\n

At its elective congress in December last year the ANC noted that it would leave no stone unturned in its land reform programme. This meant that even communal land controlled by traditional leaders would be earmarked for reform \u2013 including expropriation without compensation. <\/p>\n

But the prospect of expropriating land from traditional leaders has been met with remarkable hostility, mainly from the Zulu King, King Goodwill Zwelithini.<\/p>\n

In the face of this hostility, Ramaphosa has made some important concessions. He has told the King, as well as other traditional leaders, that land redistribution without compensation would not include communal lands controlled by tribal chiefs. <\/p>\n

Objectively, there\u2019s no justification for excluding this land which is estimated to account for 13% of all land in South Africa.<\/p>\n

What it points to is pure opportunism. <\/p>\n

Dangers ahead<\/h2>\n

South Africans need look no further than Zimbabwe for an example of a land programme that can go badly wrong. Zimbabwe\u2019s land expropriation without compensation policy ended up being a land grab in which powerful politicians, and other connected people, simply commandeered farms, including buildings, equipment, crops and livestock.<\/p>\n

This should be avoided in South Africa. But that\u2019s not to say that South Africa must duck the issue. What\u2019s needed is an orderly process that\u2019s widely debated and that doesn\u2019t exclude politically sensitive issues. It should also include debate on issues like fixed structures and improvements on expropriated land, as well as movable property, crops and the like. Pressing questions about urban property ownership are also being raised as the debate has moved beyond farmland only.<\/p>\n

If land reform is hijacked by the ANC for the purposes of winning the 2019 poll, South Africa could be on a slippery slope. There\u2019s no guarantee that the ANC\u2019s erratic behaviour won\u2019t extend beyond the issue of land expropriation without compensation. What happens in the run up to the 2024 election if the ANC feels its electoral position is threatened?<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Jannie Rossouw is a C-rated NRF researcher and has received research funding from the NRF. He is also an owner of property in South Africa. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
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ANC expediency is messing up South Africa’s land reform process: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is accused of pandering to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini (right) and other traditional leaders. GCIS It\u2019s highly likely that an amendment will be made to South Africa\u2019s constitution that will allow for land expropriation without compensation following a decision to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4635,8890,9820,4570,31909,4878,7126,3576],"class_list":{"0":"post-120201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africas","8":"tag-conversation","9":"tag-expediency","10":"tag-land","11":"tag-messing","12":"tag-process","13":"tag-reform","14":"tag-south","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}