Ace Magashule. Photo by Mlungisi Louw/Gallo Images/Volksblad
The contentious “expropriation without compensation of land” position has been part of the ANC’s policy lexicon since its December 2012 national conference in Mangaung, and is sure to feature again this weekend as a proxy war for internal election contests.
Following its 54th national conference in December 2017, the ANC has failed to implement its resolution to amend Section 25 of the constitution — which deals with property rights — to ensure that land expropriation without compensation is “among the key mechanisms available to government to give effect to land reform and redistribution”.
This failure is likely to be used by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa’s opponents at its weekend policy gathering, as they look to launch their drive to unseat him in December at the ruling party’s national elective conference.
The expropriation of land without compensation position was a proxy war at the ANC’s last elective conference in 2017 and Ramaphosa’s internal rivals will use the lack of progress on the issue as a weapon against him.
Suspended ANC secretary general Ace Magashule fired the first salvo in this regard during an interview with the Mail & Guardian where he put the blame squarely at the party’s top leadership for falling 63 votes short of the 267 needed in parliament to amend the constitution.
This was in a December 2021 parliamentary motion that the radical economic transformation faction of the ANC said was a watered down version of the party’s 2017 resolution.
The contention of a watered down motion was echoed by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which initially proposed the expropriation without compensation amendment motion in 2018. Magashule agreed that the EFF was not to blame for not voting with the ANC in December.
EFF leader Julius Malema said among other points of contention, the “nil compensation” wording — instead of “without compensation” — when dealing with land expropriation meant that “compensation for expropriation would remain the default position”. This, Malema said, was the reason the EFF had not voted in favour of the ANC’s constitutional amendment motion.
“We now know that the process of [the] Expropriation Bill, which ran parallel to the constitutional amendment process, has defined conditions under which land can be expropriated at nil compensation. These conditions include abandoned land, land that possesses health and environmental risk, state land and so on. These do not constitute the type of land needed to comprehensively deal with the land question in this country,” Malema asserted.
Magashule agreed with Malema, saying: “We can try and say to the South African public that the EFF must be blamed but … the EFF was right. The expropriation of land is our resolution and I don’t see why we could not work with the EFF on this.”
Addressing the court during his appearance in a R255-million fraud and corruption case related to a Free State 2014 contract for the eradication of asbestos roofing, in which he stands accused with 10 others – Magashule said he would avail himself to contest for the party’s top position in December.
“I am a politician; we are going to a conference in December. I will argue that I am not guilty of anything – I have not stolen a cent,” he said, adding that the criminal case against him was a deliberate move to try and prevent him from standing in ANC elections.
Ramaphosa’s faction in the ANC says state land, including that owned by parastatals and government departments, will form a large part of its land reform programme.
Policy discussion documents which will be discussed at this weekend’s conference for possible adoption in December, acknowledge that the party has failed to change the structure, systems, institutions and patterns of ownership” of land for the black majority, and that its attempts to amend the constitution have also faltered.
“We have not had sufficient support to amend the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation in certain circumstances, although there has been progress with the passing of expropriation legislation and strengthening of land redistribution processes,” one document says.
But the ANC has moved away from its radical position on land expropriation, advocating for a hybrid policy that releases its own land and “recognising” established farmers who donate land to what the party terms “beneficiary farmers”.
“In addition to the initial endowment of state land owned by various departments and state-owned enterprises, the state also has, over the last decade, acquired a total of 2.46 million hectares of productive farmland through the Pro-Active Land Acquisition programme for redistribution to beneficiaries,” the ANC says.
“Currently, these farms are only rented out to specific farmers on short term contracts and as a result many of these farms are unproductive or producing sub-optimally. The inability to access finance due to the insecurity of tenure is one of the primary reasons for this.”
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