The ANC is deliberately dragging its feet with land reform for their own political gain. The fact that there are still claims from as far back as 1998 that still have not been finalised despite the process having been initialised nearly twenty years ago serves as proof, says dr. Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus.
Today, at the budget vote debate of the department for rural development and land reform, Dr. Groenewald said that the ANC uses land reform as a political football.
“It is important for the ANC that their president can go around telling people that they cannot get land because the whites have stolen it and therefore the land first needs to be expropriated without compensation. It is a dangerous political game because it puts food security at risk.
“It is very easy to say that whites own 80 percent of the land in South Africa. The minister must confirm if this is indeed true.
“I have been requesting an audit of landownership since 2004. In 2015, the ANC’s own policy documents stated that the second phase of the audit will be available by September 2015. This second phase is very important as it will indicate the race and gender of landowners.
“It is now 2017, why has it not been disclosed? Why is it taking so long to finalise the audit? The answer is that it suits the ANC. It enables the government to tell people that the promises they made about land can only be fulfilled once all the obstacles have been removed.
“The land currently in the government’s ownership should be given to the people. Up to date, only one out of every ten title deeds of the land, that was supposed to be transferred with land reform, has been handed over to the new owners. The government has ninety percent of the title deeds in its possession. The government owns the land.
Why is the government not transferring these title deeds to the new owners? They’re not doing it because it suits the ANC’s political agenda.
“The minister said that he supposedly learnt from Zimbabwe that land cannot just be grabbed and that the process will be carried out lawfully. But the ANC is currently legalising land grabbing by the government.
“The regulations published by the Valuer-General (VG) make it clear that owners will get only half or less than market value.
“I want to tell the people of South Africa to have a close look at these regulations. They should not think that it only refers to agricultural land. It affects all property in South Africa. When the new Expropriation Act is implemented, the regulations of the VG will be applicable to everybody’s property.
“It also includes immovable property. These regulations serve as the red flag telling landowners to wake up and submit their objections to the act,” says Dr. Groenewald.
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