The former interim president recommended that state land, both rural and urban, be the first target for redistribution to make more people landowners, before even looking at redistributing private land. Cyril Ramaphosa said the ruling party would be supporting an amendment to the constitution to make land expropriation without compensation “more explicit”. Motlanthe’s comments go against an announcement by the ANC when, in a televised late-night press briefing, Pres. This is a recipe for an economic and humanitarian disaster, and an invitation for large-scale corruption,” said De Chavonnes Vrugt.įormer President Kgalema Motlanthe, during speeches to uMkhonto We Sizwe Sizwe (MK) members at Nasrec in Johannesburg, said the key focus of land reform should be to expand property ownership to more people by giving them title deeds. Custodianship of land will deprive all private landowners of their property rights without receiving compensation, giving control over all private land to the state. “Agri SA is in the process of seeking legal advice on the latest proposals. Agri SA is strongly opposed to the scaling down of the courts’ role in expropriation disputes, and even more so when it comes to expropriation without compensation. We are convinced that it will have a negative effect on agricultural land values and prices are sure to drop,” a spokesperson for the agricultural sector said.Īccording to Netwerk24 Willem de Chavonnes Vrugt, chair of Agri SA’s Centre of Excellence: Land, described the latest developments as ‘extremely concerning’. Is the government then going to take over the banks as well to get access to this land? A major backlash is sure to follow, should this custodianship become a reality. “Should this become a reality, there is one major factor to be kept in mind – most of the farms still in effect belong to banks or financial institutions.

This new proposal is shrouded in mystery and sounds more like electioneering by the ANC to gain EFF votes, rather than being a strong practical proposal.

The EFF has long promoted state custodianship over all natural resources. The ANC had suddenly and unexpectedly indicated that they would support an amendment to the wording of section 25(5) which stipulates that the state must introduce reasonable legislative and other measures to promote state custodianship of land. This followed bilateral discussions between the ANC and the EFF. In an unexpected turn in the ongoing struggle to find a solution to land reform the ANC this week agreed to support a motion of the EFF that state custodianship over all natural resources be added to the proposed amendment of the Constitution to make expropriation without compensation a reality. Picture: Former President Kgalema Motlanthe Bennie van Zyl, General Manager of TLU SA

Coa manual on property custodianship