The Constitution is not the impediment to land reform, the ANC is

4 December 2018

Madame Speaker,

The Democratic Alliance (DA) acknowledges that effective land reform must be prioritised and pursued with greater urgency to redress past land dispossessions. South Africa suffers from a history of black people being denied land ownership, but to address this we do not need to change the Constitution, we need to change the government. The DA wants all South Africans to own their land and property. We want landowners, not tenants.

Let us be clear: effective land reform is possible without threatening food security, without undermining commercial farming, without destroying social cohesion and without changing our Bill of Rights.

It is obvious that, from the onset, the integrity of the Joint Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) was compromised by collusion between the wily EFF and the beleaguered ANC. It was apparent that the tail was wagging the dog as the red berets ran roughshod over the two cowering ANC chairpersons and all but took over the process of the CRC. One of the chairpersons ultimately resigned from the committee amid the Bosasa scandal.

When their duplicity was pointed out, the EFF reacted with the usual impertinence that is so characteristic of these rude, rabble-rousing red berets who surely have had no parental guidance in their formative years. Andizukuthetha nokuthetha ke ngezinye ingqeqe ezikhonkotha ecaleni kwe EFF ne ANC … they are just cheerleaders masquerading as independent political parties.

The DA would like to state upfront that the recommendation of the CRC to amend the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation was a foregone conclusion. That is why ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa cynically made a late night announcement on TV in July that the ruling party had decided to go ahead with changing the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation. This was before the committee had even started its work in the Western Cape, thus reducing the whole process to a farce. Even now the NCOP is set to debate this report tomorrow, despite the fact that this house has not adopted it yet.

Isn’t it obvious to South Africans what is actually happening here? It was certainly obvious to the ANC in 2017 when debating and voting against expropriation without compensation in this very House, ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu said: “Section 25 of our constitution is more of an abler for land reform than a barrier. We failed to take advantage of its provisions, full stop.”

He added: “Blaming the Constitution for the embarrassingly slow pace of land reform is both disingenuous and scapegoating. We failed, finish en klaar.”

Hundreds of thousands of South Africans agreed with this sentiment in their written and oral submissions.

People like Ntate Rakgatse from Limpopo who has been working on his farm and paying the government rent for more than forty years and still does not own it. Do you think he truly believes that the ruling party will give him a title deed after amending the Constitution?

Bantu base Gwatyu in the Eastern Cape, nabanye abanjengani, will changing the Constitution make the government give you the title deed to your land? The one that you have been fighting for all these years?

Will amending the Constitution revive all the failed restitution and redistribution farms lying fallow and miraculously turn them into well-run profitable entities?

Will amending the Constitution get rid of the corruption we saw in Mala Mala, Mpumalanga, and the Estina Dairy farm near Vrede in the Free State?

Kubantu bethu abahlala ematyotyombeni … nicinguba lorulumente uzakuninika izindlu ne titile zazo emva kokuba etshintshe le Constitution?

HAYI ANDIQONDI!

Changing the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation is just a political ploy to get votes out of desperate, vulnerable people.

The DA knows there is a better way to implement successful land reform. The DA is obsessed with making people landowners, by providing over 100 000 title deeds where we govern.

Under a DA government, you will own your land, not rent it; your property rights will be protected; you will own your RDP house; your land claim will be settled, and you will receive the support to farm successfully.

The DA will bring change that builds one South Africa for all its people. We reject the report of the Constitutional Review Committee.

Issued by Thandeka Mbabama, DA Team One SA Spokesperson on Land, 4 December 2018