Constitution obstructs land reform — but property clause is not to blame
DOES the Constitution obstruct or support land reform? At a recent public discussion hosted by Oxfam, this recurring question was not resolved, despite the calibre of the speakers. The issue was tackled by Bulelwa Mabasa, director at Werksmans Attorneys; Public Works Deputy Minister Jeremy Cronin; Sithandiwe Yeni, rural transformation manager at Oxfam SA; and Lubabalo Ntsholo, EFF parliamentary researcher. As expected, the speakers disagreed sharply about the role of section 25 of the bill of rights, which is known as the property clause. However, it was remarkable how the speakers from diverse organisational and political backgrounds agreed that one of the major factors behind the failure of land reform was a lack of political will on the part of the ANC government. Mabasa pointed out that despite the Constitution mandating land reform, the relevant institutions were consistently under-resourced. Cronin conceded that there was hesitance and confusion on the part of the government w...
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