Land expropriation without compensation not govt policy

"We need to make it clear that expropriation of land without compensation is not the policy of the African National Congress-led government.

"The Bill of Rights in section 25 of the Constitution guarantees the rights to property (albeit with the power of expropriation, subject to compensation that is just and equitable) reserved to the State.

"It requires the State to take reasonable legislative and other measures to foster conditions which enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis," she said.

Mayathula-Khoza was briefing reporters on the 1913 Natives' Land Act Exhibition, which will start on Friday, 26 July, at the Nasrec Expo Centre near Soweto.

The national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has partnered with the Gauteng Provincial Government to host the exhibition until August 4.

The exhibition forms part of the activities to mark 100 years since the promulgation of the 1913 Natives' Land Act by the apartheid government.

The exhibition will be telling the story of the Natives' Land Act of 1913, its role in the shaping the country's history of segregation and the measures being taken to reverse its unjust legacy in the present.

It covers the pre-colonial era, colonial encroachment and settlement, the colonial era, the Natives' Land Act, dispossession and displacement, apartheid and separate development, urban forced removals, segregated cities, the "homelands", reigniting the struggle, the transition to democracy and reversing the legacy of the Land Act.

The act formalised the land dispossessions that had been carried out since colonisation. It prohibited indigenous people from lawfully acquiring, owning or renting land across the country, with only 7% reserved for the black majority.

According to Mayathula-Khoza, government has acquired and redistributed 4,860 farms and out of the 79,696 claims that were lodged, 77,334 have been settled, 59,758 of which were finalised.

"The settlement of claims has resulted in the awarding of three million hectares of land to qualifying claimants and the payment of R6bn in financial compensation," she said.

Green Paper on Land Reform

The MEC said the Green Paper on Land Reform, as part of a new trajectory for land reform, is aligned to the National Development Plan (NDP), which aims to reduce inequality and eliminate poverty by 2030.

Mayathula-Khoza also announced that the department was finalising policies and legislation that will give effect to the proposals contained in the Green Paper on Land Reform.

"The new vision of land reform, as set out in the Green Paper, is to improve the pace of land reform, while ensuring the continuation of production on redistributed land, in accordance with the land reform principles of deracialisation of the rural economy, democratic and equitable use of land across race, gender and class as well as production discipline," she said.