Justice Minister Ronald Lamola insists the ANC’s fight for the expropriation of land without compensation in Parliament was not over.
He says the government will use other means to pursue land reform.
Lamola, whose speech was delivered at a webinar to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution yesterday, in the aftermath of the ANC’s failure to garner enough support from MPs to pass the18th constitutional amendment to allow for expropriation of land without compensation.
This was after the ANC and EFF failed to agree on the custodianship of land, which would have given the ruling party the required two-thirds majority if a deal had been struck.
Lamola said they will ensure that the National Assembly adopts the Expropriation Bill, the Land Court Bill and produce a Redistribution Bill which will lead to equitable redistribution of land in the interest of every South African.
He said these were some of the bills they were finalising to address systemic inequalities and unfair discrimination that manifested in the institutions of society, and the practices and attitudes of South Africans.
“To date we have put in place legislation directed at advancing human rights, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, the Promotion to Access of Information Act and Promotion to Administrative Justice Act,” Lamola said.
Lamola said in pursuit of democratising land reform, they had passed the land restitution act, strengthened security of tenure and facilitated access to housing and the provision of social assistance for those in need.
“We firmly believe that land reform should be anchored on the restitution of land rights that has been dispossessed in terms of colonial laws, improvement of security of tenure for those whose land rights were weakened by apartheid laws; and land redistribution,” Lamola said.
Lamola further said: “We equally advocate for multiple land ownership in South Africa which will mirror our social and economic construct.
“It should facilitate economic and social participation by any land holder.
“Through land reform, we want to restore the dignity and the economic power of those dispossessed by the Apartheid regime and change ownership patterns.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation’s CEO Sello Hatang said South Africa was a wounded nation.
“The constitution is about a dream but dreaming is not enough, it is time that we have to work hard for the society that we dream of.
“We have to make sure we lift early childhood development from where it is to where it should be.
“We need to ensure that our education empowers our children, not only focus on matric,” Hatang said.
POLITICAL BUREAU