EFF Takes Fight for Land to Billionaire Johann Rupert: Land Expropriation Without Compensation

In 1913 the Natives Land Act saw thousands of black families forcibly removed from their land by the apartheid government. The EFF‘s position is that land will be distributed equally among citizens regardless of race, and it will be taken from those who do not use it and be given to those who have intentions to work it. It is so because the Native Land Act when it became law on the 19^th of June 1913 , it limited African land ownership to 7 percent and later 13 percent through the 1936 Native Trust and Land Act of South Africa. You may recall that The Natives Land Act inaugurated apartheid in South Africa in 1913. This left nearly 70% of black South Africans unable to purchase.

In 2017, a land audit was conducted by the South African government and it revealed that 72 percent of the country’s arable land remains in the hands of whites, who account for fewer than 10 percent of the total population

On this day 6th of April, 1652, Jan Van Riebeeck arrived on SA shores. About 370 years since that day black life remains one of trauma, dispossession, and landlessness. On today’s march, the 6^th of March 2022 EFF, Julius Malema said they will continue to accelerate a call for expropriation of land without compensation. Malema indicated that they will blatantly refuse to collaborate with sell-out motions which dilute straightforward demands.

Malema added on to say, ‘’Let us observe the land day by identifying a piece of land for settlement or agriculture if you like it, take it’’

Take a look at what EFF Leader, Julius Malema has to say;

*Colonialist land thief Jan Van Riebeeck arrived on SA shores*

*You are rich because of what your forefathers took from us*

*We are saying you, Rupert, your riches come from theft*

*We are here to confront white monopoly*

*You must be ashamed that people in Khayamnandi live in poverty*

*We are not our grandparents we won’t be mistreated*

*Indigenous people of South Africa were all here when your forefathers arrived*

*You took the most fertile land*

*You are on stolen land we are here to claim it back*

*We want commercial land to own, properties, fertile land, and wine farms*

*Solomon Mahlangu was killed, a soldier of Umkhonto Wesizwe who was fighting for our freedom*

*Today we commemorate Solomon Mahlangu and remember the arrival of the street settlers*

*The Rupert own everything, they even own judges*

Jacques Beukes, is a good example of a fourth-generation grape farmer whose family owns 100 hectares of land in the fertile Hex River Valley. To that note, many farmers fear a repeat of the violent state-sanctioned land grabs that left the Zimbabwean economy in tatters in the early 2000s.

In South Africa, the issue of land redistribution is complex and has a long history characterized by a series of ineffectual and ill-defined government programs and a lack of political will that spans successive cabinets.

The new proposals that are happening in South Africa are that land is expropriated without compensation.

Find below the questions we should ask ourselves regarding the land expropriation to ascertain its pros and cons

i)                   How do we ensure that land expropriation without compensation does not lead to what happened in the land reform programme in Zimbabwe.

ii)                  Is the land expropriation going to yield a change in the complexion of ownership?

iii)                How should we go about the expropriation regime such that it could not lead to further litigation and contestation in the country?

iv)                What methodology can be used to redistribute the land without ensuring that production remains unchanged?

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