SA will amend its laws to allow expropriation of land without compensation for owners as it tries to speed up the redistribution of land to the black majority, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday. Expropriation without compensation would mark a radical policy departure for the ANC, shifting from a willing buyer-willing seller approach to more radical alternatives. Most of SA’s land remains in white hands, more than 20 years after the end of apartheid. "We need to take bold steps that will transform our economy, including land ownership, very fast," Zuma said in a speech outlining agricultural policy. "We are busy amending [laws] to enable faster land reform, including land expropriation without compensation as provided for in the constitution." Zuma referred a bill allowing state expropriation of land back to Parliament last week because legislators failed to facilitate adequate public participation. That bill enabled the state to acquire land without the owners’ consent by paying a...

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