President Cyril Ramaphosa has told the National Assembly that the Expropriation Bill that the House passed on Wednesday is one of the interventions to address the hunger for land in the country.
Ramaphosa was responding to Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Veronica Mente’s question during his oral reply session in the Good Hope Chamber in Cape Town.
Mente told Ramaphosa that a lack of access to land was one of the causes of unemployment and hunger in the country which predominantly affected Black South Africans.
Ramaphosa says, “Government continues to address the question of land. This National Assembly passed the Expropriation Bill. That is one of the interventions that will be able to contribute in addressing the land hunger that people have, because through that Bill we’ll be able to expropriate land for public use, for the use of our people. And that in many ways will be answering precisely the issues of the demand that people have always made on land.”
VIDEO: President Ramaphosa National Assembly Q & A session:
Land reform
In February, appearing before Parliament’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Noxolo Kievit said the Expropriation Bill should be seen as a tool that would allow South Africa to expand on land reform.
The Committee met with the Department as well as parliamentary and state law advisors to look into the constitutionality of the Bill that will allow the expropriation of land without compensation.
Kievit said the Bill will also assist other government departments that seek to address land reform.
Economic effects
The DA also said that South Africa may be kicked out of AGOA by the United States as the preferential market access policy permits countries that commit to protecting private property rights.
VIDEO: In 2020, Cabinet gave the green light for Land Expropriation Without Compensation Bill:
