The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Sunday welcomed the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs’ decision to do away with the ”willing buyer/willing seller” policy in land reform.
”In particular we welcome her commitment to set deadlines to negotiations over the price of land under claim, and her commitment to expropriation thereafter. The SACP is looking forward to seeing further progress in this regard,” said the SACP in a statement issued by spokesperson Malesela Maleka after its central committee meeting in Johannesburg at the weekend.
On Friday, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana announced in Polokwane, Limpopo, that her department had done away with the ”willing buyer/willing seller” policy.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that Xingwana said her department would now negotiate for six months only with land owners whose property prices were inflated.
If the negotiations fail, the land will be expropriated in order to reach the settlement target date of December 2008.
Xingwana said expropriation laws existed so the department would no longer ”waste time negotiating for five years” with people who were not committed to transformation.
”We are therefore now going to negotiate just for six months, nothing less, nothing more and then expropriation will kick in,” said Xingwana.
The SACP noted ”the pent-up crisis around unresolved land-restitution claims, and we call for the whole restitution process to be opened up once more, taking into account many communities that never had the opportunity to bring their claims forward, including the millions of victims of forced removals”.
In a wide-ranging statement, the SACP also called for sanctions against Israel, trade and consumer boycotts of Israeli products and for a review of South African diplomatic ties with Israel.
”Whilst the United Nations Security Council resolution creates the possibility for a desperately needed reprieve for peace and lessens the dangers of a further expansion of the conflict to other countries in the region, it lacks any reference to Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and of the rights of Palestinians to self-determination,” said the SACP.
It said it will ”intensify our ongoing solidarity ties with the communist parties of Lebanon, Israel and the people of Palestine”.
The SACP said it will continue to support former deputy president Jacob Zuma ”in a principled and dignified manner” in his upcoming trial relating to allegations of corruption around the arms-procurement deal.
”For justice to be done, a speedy resolution to this process is now imperative. The SACP therefore calls for the trial to start without delay, as justice delayed is justice denied.”
The party called for another look at the entire arms-procurement package.
It said any indication of corruption should be pursued and there should also be a ”comprehensive review” that looked at broader policy and strategic questions.
”How is it possible that our government, which in the mid-1990s was placing so much emphasis on fiscal discipline, could have entered into an enormous multibillion-rand procurement project, whose strategic value, let alone social development impact, seems to be tenuous?
”If, as we are assured, the primary contracts directly driven by government were corruption free, were we naive about the secondary contracts?”
It said mega-projects like the arms deal, the Coega harbour project in the Eastern Cape and the Gautrain should be reassessed as they seemed to have ”minimal developmental impact”.
The party said it was still consulting members and allies over key demands in its upcoming Red October campaign over ”the need for safe, affordable and accessible public transport”.
It said despite attempts to recapitalise the taxi industry and huge subsidies to buses and trains, public transport had not improved significantly for most people.
”It is time to approach public transport in a fresh and much more dynamic way that includes popular participation by those who are most affected.”
The party said it would continue discussions with its alliance partners the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), including debates it had started on ”moral values of our new democracy and the corrosive impact of market-place capitalist values”.
It said it would work with Cosatu on organising casual and other marginalised workers.
It said the ANC elections at its 2007 conference were an internal ANC matter so it would not take a position on that.
On the Democratic Republic of Congo, the SACP welcomed the ”ground-breaking” democratic elections. ”We are proud of the role that our government has played in facilitating this democratisation process, which has the potential of unleashing hugely progressive possibilities for the peoples of our entire region.”
The party wished Cuban president Fidel Castro a ”speedy recovery” following his recent abdominal operation. — Sapa