Expropriation of land without compensation and fair distribution of land would be good for economic development and historical redress‚ Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama said on Tuesday evening.
He said land was stolen by whites and this land must be returned to its rightful black owners.
Mngxitama was speaking at the Rumble in the Urban Jungle debate hosted by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Cape Town. He was debating with economist Dawie Roodt.
“In SA‚ if we were to look at just two sectors‚ agriculture and mining‚ we argue that because of the inefficiency of those sectors… you will still have to radically redistribute those sectors.”
Mngxitama said the value of mining in SA was about R20-trillion in terms of the known mineral resources‚ but mining only employed 400‚000 people. “That is highly inefficient. Only for that reason you should be redistributing that economic sector‚” he said.
Mngxitama claimed 35‚000 white people in South Africa owned 85 % of the land. “If we took all the white people who own about 80% of the land‚ they cannot fill a stadium‚” he said.
He said agriculture did not provide more than 700‚000 jobs.