'ANC sounds more fragmented than ever on land' - Fikeni

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni says he is cautious about the ANC’s discussions on how to deal with land redistribution because the party’s track record on the issue “does not show courage of conviction“.

In the run-up to its policy conference‚ the party essentially wants to first understand the situation on landlessness before deciding on new policy.

In its discussion documents the ANC wants to: “Provide greater certainty by codifying the constitutional requirement of ‘just and equitable compensation’ for the acquisition of land.”

 Fikeni said the ANC sounds more fragmented than ever in how to deal with land restitution and that the policy discussions were not in tune with the pronouncements by some ANC leaders.

“You are seeing a promise but not something concrete and tangible. That could lead to be more frustration by ordinary people‚” he said.

Fikeni said inquiring knowledge of the situation and how to deal with it does not satisfy “the hunger for land“.

“You seeing studies upon studies and a lot of consultation but nothing is done of that‚” he said‚ later cautioning that the ANC may lose relevance on dealing with land to other left leaning parties.

Officially‚ the ANC supports expropriation of land so long as it is in line with the constitution.

But differences have arose on whether the ANC should side with “like minded political parties“‚ as suggested by President Jacob Zuma‚ to amend the constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation.

In the run-up to its conference where a tangible decision would have to be taken‚ ANC policy drafters are suggesting that amending the constitution is not an option.

ANC NEC member and minister of science and technology Naledi Pandor noted on Sunday that amending section 25 of the Constitution which deals with land would not ensure that everything would fall into place.

Fikeni said ANC leaders like Zuma and his supporters in the so-called ‘premier league’ faction are championing radicalism on land as a way to “manage the internal dynamics in the ANC“.

The party line is that the ambit of the Constitution is enough to ensure land restitution but some clarity should be devised over what the Constitution means.

“The Constitution’s commitment to ‘just and equitable’ compensation for the acquisition of land for land reform purposes should be codified and (there) should (be a) replacement for market-based valuations of land. The process must be facilitated and accelerated by the passing of updated expropriation legislation by Parliament‚” the party’s discussion documents said.

Further‚ the ANC head of its economic transformation subcommittee‚ Enoch Godongwana‚ suggested on Sunday that the ANC may be looking at taxation as a means of forcing people to sell their land to the state in an effort to deal with land reform.

 “So in a sense we unashamedly propose to tax land that is used for speculative purposes to force people to sell but there are different legislative mechanisms so that they should sell to us. We are thinking about that‚ different mechanisms to make sure that they sell to us‚” he said.