EXPROPRIATION
ANTHONY BUTLER: Ramaphosa wrong to focus on rural land
The redistribution strategy has lacked urgency, and most of the 8% of land transferred has not resulted in viable black-owned farms
Despite the generally positive response from business to the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as president of the ANC, a conference resolution to allow for land expropriation and redistribution without compensation has alarmed many observers. Ramaphosa compounded investors’ unease at the weekend by saying that expropriation could "make this country the Garden of Eden". This remark, and the debate that followed, perpetuated the misunderstanding that land is a rural issue. The ANC’s low-key approach to land reform since 1994 has had three prongs: restitution of land lost through racially discriminatory apartheid-era laws; tenure reform to create legal coherence out of the diversity of inherited tenure forms; and land redistribution. Tens of thousands of restitution claims lodged in 1998 have been resolved, mostly through financial compensation. The redistribution strategy has lacked urgency, and most of the 8% of land transferred has not resulted in viable black-owned farms.The 2017 confer...
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