Private property ownership was protected by the Constitution and the African National Congress had no intention of banning foreign ownership of land, the party’s Chief Whip Nathi Nhleko said on Tuesday.
He was reacting to a statement by the Democratic Alliance’s Dan Maluleke saying that the ANC was in danger of scaring off investors by even considering banning foreign ownership of land.
The DA was reacting to a draft ANC resolution on land reform, which calls for careful examination of land ownership and ”usage patterns in the country, especially the sale of land to foreigners, which leads to pricing beyond the reach of South Africans”.
The resolution will be debated at the ANC’s national conference in Stellenbosch next month. Nhleko has previously stated the resolution should not necessarily be interpreted as a call for a ban on foreign ownership.
On Tuesday, Nhleko took exception to Maluleke’s statement and accused the DA of irresponsibility.
”The claim that the ANC-led government is considering banning foreign ownership of land in South Africa is devoid of the truth and logic. ‘Scaring investors’ is mischief by the DA just to assume an international character as the party that can be trusted.”
Nhleko said the ANC’s land reform resolution was crafted to assist the government to ”know who owns what when it comes to land”.
”Foreign ownership is one of these.”
Nhleko urged Maluleke to act in a patriotic manner
”because the question of land needs all of us to engage with it”
Land deprivation was a national grievance for South Africans.
”They want to own land. They did not say government must ban land ownership by foreigners. That is a DA call, not (an) ANC (call).” He repeated the ANC’s view that in South Africa the rule of law existed and government would not tolerate land grabbing.
”Our people will not be deterred by lies spread by forces of darkness. Land owned by foreigners is private property and protected by the Constitution.
”No person has a right to tell the ANC what to think or not. Our people can think for themselves. South Africans have a right to know who owns what in their country,” Nhleko said.
In an interview last week, Nhleko said the land reform
resolution called for an examination or a process of review around the question of sale of land to foreigners.
”There are a number of things that are involved. You could find there are pieces of land owned by a foreign company. You also find land owned by individuals who are not South African, and then you
also have a situation of landlessness in South Africa.”
Nhleko said that during his constituency work he had come across a case of a 500 hectare farm ”that has never been sighted by its owner”, who was living in Malaysia.
People questioned why the land was owned by a foreigner who was never there.
”When you talk to people it’s about the nature of ownership. Why are foreigners allowed to own land in South Africa? Why is government allowing that? I remember that was one question at the meeting. So you have all sorts of things.
”Combined with that, you will have people who say: ‘See, we don’t have land, but our land is in the hands of foreigners… and this land used to belong to us’.”
Nhleko said it was therefore necessary to have ”a very careful and sensible kind of discussion around the issue”.
”My view is that the resolution does not necessarily call for a ban of land ownership by foreigners. It does not do that,” he said. – Sapa