Government vows to fast-track changing the Constitution to ‘radically transform’ SA
President Jacob Zuma has “decided enough is enough”, and the ANC will now accelerate distributing the nation’s wealth more equally between the black majority and the more affluent white minority, by amending the Constitution.
This is according to small business minister Lindiwe Zulu, speaking to Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday.
Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Durban, Zulu noted that these Constitutional changes would include the seizure of land for redistribution to black people without compensation, due to the fact that “the country’s laws are hindering the transformation of the economy more than two decades after the end of apartheid”.
“There’s nothing wrong with changing the constitution where it’s not helping you – where we need to change, it we will change it,” she said.
“Our people are not going to forgive us if we prolong this thing. Radical economic transformation – what does that mean? Ownership of the means of production. What does that mean? Bringing black people into the space of the bigger economy of South Africa.”
In March 2017, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti finally set out what to expect from the incoming land reform bill. However he noted that “expropriation without compensation”, was purely aspirational and for the purposes of debate and would not form the basis of the new bill.
Key points from the new bill include:
- The establishment of a new land commission to address current transformation targets and redress the socio-economic injustices of the past.
- A complete auditing process by this commissionthat will require full disclosures in respect of the present ownership of private agricultural landholdings, including the race, gender and nationality of the owner, the use and size of the agricultural land holding and any real right registered against and licence allocated to the agricultural land holding.
- Determinations of land, including the division of all qualifying commercially viable land land into three broad categories, namely small, medium and large-scale. This determination of categories will be performed by the minister and published in the Government Gazette at a later date.
- The commission will then aid in the transfer of agricultural land, in line with the Constitution while also seeking to limit the amount of agricultural land any individual owner can hold beyond a certain threshold.
- Those who own commercial land outside of the designated thresholds will then be compensated for the outstanding property using a just and equitable calculation.
- The remaining portions will be transferred back to the State, or converted into a lease agreement.
Read: Government finally explains how it plans to take land in South Africa
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