Under pressure Zuma cools populist land reform rhetoric
President backtracks on previous stance of no compensation and amending Constitution
In a dramatic about-turn from his populist stance, President Jacob Zuma says SA’s land issue needs to be "resolved within the ambit of the Constitution and the law". He was addressing a traditional leaders indaba in Ekurhuleni on Monday. Speaking to the same constituency in the National House of Traditional Leaders in March, Zuma said land reform had to be implemented without compensation and suggested the Constitution be amended. This call came against the backdrop of an EFF invitation to the ANC to help it amend section 25 of the Constitution to lift the protection that allowed for land reform with compensation. The ANC parliamentary caucus voted against it. The ANC itself will hold a special national executive committee meeting to grapple with this issue. "It [the Constitution] is an instrument that we must utilise," Zuma said on Monday. Zuma referred to the importance of a single legal framework on land redistribution, but did not refer to land expropriation without compensation...
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