South Africans can expect the government to start expropriating land without compensation in coming months, says political analyst Justice Malala. “The issue of land expropriation without compensation has been a dampener in politics in recent weeks and there’s no doubt that there is much concern about it,” he said. With talk of South Africa becoming another Zimbabwe, investors and businesses alike have been fearful of the impact that expropriation without compensation will have on the economy. In most instances, it has resulted in a reserved approach from investors. “The issue of land is having an impact on investors’ decision making,” said Malala. He added that it had to be seen in context of the country’s political history. “The land issue has been around since 1913 in this country. It really raised its head after 1994 but was never at the top of the agenda for either Presidents Mandela or Mbeki. “In 2016 then president Jacob Zuma indicated that land expropriation had to speed up and concerns were raised when statements were made by various ANC cabinet ministers that they had no qualms changing the constitution.” Malala said, despite this, all ANC members of Parliament declined the opportunity to change the Constitution in 2017 and voted against a motion brought by the EFF. “Ramaphosa had no choice but to take up the land debate when it was brought up in the dying days of the ANC conference in December. It was either that or accept the conference is a failure, which would have seen his election as president of the ANC thrown out.” Also, “Gwede Mantashe very quickly realized that if land expropriation was not adopted by the ANC as a policy, the faction that wanted this to pass was not going to allow the conference to pass peacefully and Jacob Zuma would have remained South African President.” The good news, said Malala, was that this entire process highlighted how different the ANC’s approach to land expropriation was to that of the EFF. “The EFF wants all the land – state owned and private property – to be expropriated. The structures on land will belong to individuals, but that is all,” he explained. “The ANC has a very different position from that, but they understand the dire consequences of not speeding up land expropriation.” Malala said he did not see the ANC changing the Constitution, but expected to see expropriations start in South Africa before the end of the year without compensation. “I suspect they will be expropriating the state’s land to start with. Transnet owns vast amounts of land and there’s an opportunity to take some of that and use it for housing.” With the expropriation bill currently before Parliament this was an issue that would remain on the table for some time to come.
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I suspect they will be expropriating the state’s land to start with. Transnet owns vast amounts of land and there’s an opportunity to take some of that and use it for housing. – Justice Malala
