Appropriate land with compensation: Zuma

The state must be allowed to appropriate land with compensation, as set out in Constitution, President Jacob Zuma said.

"Land reform must represent a radical... break from the past without significantly disrupting agriculture production and food security," Zuma told ANC delegates at the close of the party's policy conference.

"[The] conference also affirmed the proposal to replace willing buyer, willing seller with the just and equitable principles in the constitution immediately – where the state is requiring land for land reform purposes."

Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said expropriation without compensation will only happen with land that is acquired illegally.

"The expropriation that we have now is unconstitutional and that act needs to be brought in line with the Constitution," she told reporters at the ANC policy conference in Midrand.

"We do not need to change the Constitution for this. Expropriation without compensation will only happen when land was acquired illegally. Only the court will determine whether land was acquired illegally, so there will be no indiscriminate expropriation."

She said the conference had decided that the "willing buyer, willing seller" approach to land restitution would be dropped.

Instead land expropriation would be done in terms of the “just and equitable” requirement of Section 25 of the Constitution.

Joemat-Pettersson said the section was a property clause that "allows us to do exactly we wanted to do [with land]".

She said the conference had not set any goals for expropriation, but would rather wait for the land audit to be completed at the end of the year.

Zuma also said the ANC proposed that land ownership by women be accelerated. "This is aimed at correcting the land question to address poverty," said Zuma.

He said women were the largest group affected by poverty and inequality. Zuma said the policy conference also proposed that land reform needed to be done in a way that would not disrupt agriculture and food security.

Original Article Here