How world sees SA: A watered down land debate

If the opponents to land expropriation were hoping that the presidential panel on land reform was going to slap down any form of expropriation,  this has certainly not happened. It has recommended that the expropriation bill should be passed speedily to replace the apartheid-era 1975 Expropriation Act. But the panel's main focus is not on land expropriation as the only tool to address injustices of the past; what the report recommends, is a broad plan to deal with land reform. The recommendations include looking at state-owned land, unused private land and the drafting of an urban land policy. The panel has also not focused exclusively on land owned by whites; they want the Ingonyama Trust, which holds 2,883m hectares of land in KwaZulu-Natal on behalf of the Zulu King to be reviewed. If implemented, it is a decision that could set the ANC leadership on a collision course. The issue of land expropriation is worrying for investors. In May this year President Cyril Ramaphosa told a Goldman Sachs investor conference that investors need not fear that their land may be taken away as it would not be a sensible move. There seems to be a weary acceptance by the international business community that some form of land expropriation is going to happen in South Africa and they are looking for assurances from Ramaphosa that illegal land grabs and settlements will not be allowed and that investment will not be affected. In an article in the Financial Times, Joseph Cotterill writes that it appears that the panel advising Ramaphosa appears to have cooled on allowing expropriation without payment. – Linda van Tilburg

By Thulasizwe Sithole

Cyril Ramaphosa has been urged by the panel looking into land expropriation without compensation to set strict limits on its plan to seize land without compensation. The Financial Times reports that in its report released over the weekend "the panel offered only lukewarm endorsement for the expropriation policy." This is despite the fact that the African National Congress, egged on by the Economic Freedom Fighters wants the policy to be enshrined in law.

The FT says the ANC efforts to seek a two-thirds majority to alter the country's constitution which will allow the seizure of land without paying compensation "has unnerved foreign investors". The ANC decided on the policy as the only way to address years of inequality due to apartheid policies.

Ramaphosa has repeatedly said that he would not allow land grabs in the country, but the panel wants him to commit to limit the use of land seizures to "land that had been abandoned or that was held for purely speculative purposes." The recommendations of the panel were not unanimous, which is a reflection of the fierce debate in the country on the issue of land expropriation.

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