ANDISIWE MAKINANA
Political Bureau
Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti says he will sign off today on the long-awaited green paper on land reform which proposes radical changes to land ownership.
Nkwinti said he would submit the document to a cabinet committee next week, after which it would probably serve before the cabinet for approval.
He said there had been “no changes” to the green paper leaked to Independent Newspapers last year.
The three basic principles remained, Nkwinti said.
These include deracialising the rural economy for sustainable growth, equitable and democratic land redistribution and “production discipline” for sustainable food security.
Nkwinti is scheduled to meet with agriculture unions and provinces today.
Last week, the Agriculture Business Chamber asked Nkwinti to immediately release the latest green paper.
President Jacob Zuma referred to the green paper last week when he addressed delegates at Cosatu’s central committee meeting, where he said that pending legislation would limit foreign ownership of land.
Yesterday, Nkwinti told Independent Newspapers that contrary to popular belief, he had been not been putting out fires after the ANC Youth League’s national conference last month when the league adopted a resolution that land should be expropriated without compensation.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony where he handed over more than 1 000 hectares of land to two communities in Groblersdal, Limpopo.
The government bought the land from commercial farmers for more than R5 million. It will go to 625 households who were dispossessed of the land from the early 1950s until the mid-1970s.