ANC planning cautious approach on land reform

The ANC will first try to speed up land reform before resorting to changing section 25 of the Constitution, Enoch Godongwana, chairperson of the party’s committee on economic transformation, says. According to Rapport, Godongwana was addressing a group of Gauteng members of the provincial legislature on land reform in the first official discussion about its ‘expropriation without compensation’ resolution. As the resolution has not been produced in writing yet, it remains unclear what exactly the ANC’s conference decided and what the conditions might ensue. Godongwana said land owners have ‘absolutely no reason to panic’ as expropriation will start with compensation and the involvement of the Valuer-General. Godongwana says the first step in implementing the ANC resolution will be to ascertain who owns the 4m hectares of agricultural land. The release of the government’s official land audit was imminent, he said. Godongwana told the MPLs that farmers owe the Land Bank some R40bn and between R120bn and R160bn to commercial banks. ‘That is why we cannot be reckless with land reform. The banks will collapse.’