JOHANNESBURG - The decision of the governing ANC to go ahead with changing the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation is short-sighted, agricultural union TLU SA has said.
The national assembly on Thursday approved a motion to initiate and introduce the legislation and a committee will have to give feedback to parliament by the end of March next year.
"“Expropriation without compensation will not deliver any good results,” TLU SA president Louis Meintjes said in a statement.
"Research shows most of the applicants do not have the knowledge or capacity to sustainably manage the land, which at the moment contributes significantly to the rural and national economy. In most cases, they would instead opt to be financially compensated than to be in charge of the land."
He said the past had shown that most of the land previously expropriated now lay barren "because the government did not care enough to support the new owners to manage the land successfully".