The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) yesterday asked Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti to petition the Constitutional Court to seek clarity on the interpretation of section 25 of the constitution in a bid to allow the expropriation of land without compensation.
In an open letter, ANCYL secretary-general Njabulo Nzuza said the league was concerned by a number of weaknesses it worried could be detrimental to the sustainability of a progressive land reform project and the Land Expropriation Amendment Bill.
“Whereas we commend the progress made by you and your department in giving land back to dispossessed communities, we have noted a structural weakness to the process,” he said.
“There is a serious threat to land reform arising from the tendency of the government to purchase land on behalf of poor communities without an accompanying empowerment programme around technical and managerial skilling for the effective use of this land.”
Nzuza said the "market value" component of section 25 as the only provision to be accounted for when expropriating land was commonly exaggerated.
“This serves to lock the state into an expensive acquisition trap, which in turn undermines the public interest by disempowering the state from allocating further funds for the development of that acquired land,” Nzuza said.
“In view of the foregoing, our view as the ANCYL is that you and your department should initiate a petitioning of the Constitutional Court, for which we will mobilise society and particularly young people.
“This petition should initiate a process to assess the extent to which the interpretation of section 25 of the constitution can allow for the expropriation of land without compensation, thus allowing the state to instead use the bulk of its funding to develop capabilities among beneficiary communities.”
Nzuza said the ANCYL was particularly interested in this matter because it would afford young African people access to land ownership as a means of changing "the unjust pattern of material racist exclusion".
“This will allow them to benefit from the land value-chain that involves, among other things, dividends in farming, tourism, mining and cultural use values,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ANCYL earlier said it would be initiating a series of open letters to cabinet members on the subject of the implementation of ANC policy resolutions.
Last week, the ANCYL began its open-letters campaign with a strongly worded missive to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, calling on him not to hike university fees for next year. – ANA