SOUTH AFRICA needs to start expropriating land without compensation if it’s to speed up socio-economic reform, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, said this week.
Nkwinti said a law is needed to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.
He told Parliament during the debate on the State of the Nation Address that an audit of pre-colonial land is needed to fast-track the transfer of land to the black majority.
According to Nkwinti, the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle was not having the desired effect.
“There is this talk about ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ going on in the debate. We no longer use it.”
Nkwinti added that a pre-colonial audit of land was necessary to determine ownership, use and occupation patterns.
He also claims the City of Cape Town is the only South African municipality to demand money for land it owned that was approved for restitution.
“Cape Town is the only municipality in the country which charges for land that was owned by the municipality here, we have had to pay R120 million.”
Across the Limpopo, Zimbabwe is still feeling the impact of the land grab-17 years on. The expropriation of land from whites in Zimbabwe was characterised by violence and human rights abuses and a marked economic decline.
Last week, a senator told Parliament that President Robert Mugabe’s land policies since 2000 had left 1000 dispossessed white farmers as well as their black workers poverty stricken.-by Eye Witness
