JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday opened the National House of Traditional Leaders .
Addressing leaders, Ramaphosa reiterated that land expropriation without compensation will happen; the President did note that the program of land reform must have clear targets as well as time frame and must be guided by sound legal and economic principals.
Ramaphosa said such principals must contribute to the country's overall job creation and investment objectives.
"As I have been saying, in this new era, in this new dawn - we should see the land reform process, the expropriation of land without compensation as an opportunity, rather than as something that is negative," he said.
"We should take it upon our shoulders to resolve this original sin, resolve this problem that was imposed on our people and in doing so, we should ensure that we use this opportunity to grow our economy; we should use this opportunity to ensure that agricultural production goes higher and higher and we should use this opportunity so that food security is not compromised".
Ramaphosa told the house that the crescendo for transformation provided, "a great opportunity which we must approach with great skill, with great wisdom but in a determined way, making sure that we achieve the objectives that are going to advance the interests of our people."
"By providing more land to more producers to cultivation and by providing the necessary support, we are laying the foundation for what I would call an agricultural revolution," he said.
The President said government was determined to work with traditional leaders to significantly expand agriculture and secure food security; and also to create jobs on a significant scale and increase the value of the country's exports.
"As we embark on this agricultural revolution, the young people of our country must be the agricultural revolutionaries that we've been looking for. They are the ones who will take our agriculture to a higher level.
We should ensure that they [young people] participate in the agricultural revolution that is unfolding. We will not succeed in developing rural areas if the most active and most skilled people leave for cities and metros," he cautioned.