The amendment of Section 25 of the constitution to enable the expropriation of land without compensation encourages the previously disadvantaged black, coloured and Indian South Africans to strive for both economic and social freedom.

The amendment provides a beacon of hope in addressing the skewed and unequal ownership of land and to also redress the injustices of land dispossession dating back as far as 1913. While many land policies emanate from the Constitution, the government has more customised legislations that try to redress land disputes through various means.

Section 25 (6) of the constitution stipulates that a person or community whose tenure of land is illegally insecure as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices is entitled, to the extent provided by Act of Parliament, either to tenure which is legally secure or to comparable redress.

Through this Constitutional mandate, the Gauteng Provincial Shared Service Centre of the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development evoked Section 4 of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act of 1997 to hand over a title deed of the Mooilande Farm in Meyerton to the Mnqabashe family.

The family arrived, worked and resided on the farm since 1973 with the permission from the landowner and after the owner passed away, he left the ownership of the farm with his daughter who had the intention to sell the farm.

The department then used the Act to acquire the farm on behalf of the family. This is not only heartwarming to see the restoration of tenure to a family whose security was threatened but assuming full ownership of the farm will fortify their efforts of also turning the farm into a thriving agricultural business. This is true black empowerment because land ownership amounts to economic emancipation.

Sinazo Alungile Novukela, Lugangeni, Mount Frere