Durban – There is no need for a referendum on expropriation of land without compensation, Democratic Alliance KwaZulu-Natal caucus spokesman MPL Mbali Ntuli said.
"The DA is opposed to the ANC’s call for a referendum on whether land should be expropriated without compensation," he said in a statement. Quoted comments attributed to the DA on the front page of Friday’s Mercury newspaper distorted this position.
DA caucus leader Francois Rodgers did emphasise that the DA supported broad consultation to arrive at a workable solution to land reform and further highlighted the DA's concerns about a referendum being used to drive a particular political agenda.
"There is no need whatsoever for a referendum on expropriation of land without compensation. Our history, which saw people deprived of land on the basis of race, must be redressed. Our Constitution was designed to prevent and redress this arbitrary, deeply hurtful, and inhumane legacy.
"South Africa's Constitution is not an obstacle to land reform, it is an essential ingredient to building a prosperous society based on the rule of law. The Constitution compels the government to take steps to help people or communities own land in way that is fair and just to all South Africans.
"The real reason for the slow pace of land reform is that instead of rolling out programmes that benefit the majority of South Africans, as section 25 of the Constitution prescribes, land reform was used to give corrupt deals to political cronies and lock-out the majority of South Africans from access to land.
"A clean, transparent, and fair land reform programme in terms of the Constitution is the solution – no referendum is needed for that," Ntuli said.