cape town: Accelerating land reform remains the key priority of government, says Deputy President Paul Mashatile. The Deputy President announced in Parliament on Thursday that in the past five years alone, the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Land Reform and Agriculture, through the relevant departments and State organs, redistributed 305,990 hectares of land. This includes 127,525 hectares allocated to women, 111,071 hectares to youth, and 2,781 hectares to people with disabilities between 2019 and 2024.

According to South African Government News Agency, about 2.3 million people have benefitted from land restitution, where a total of R25 billion was spent on the restitution of 3,972,331 hectares. Additionally, R22.5 billion has been spent on financial compensation for those beneficiaries who opted to receive financial compensation instead of the land being transferred.

The Deputy President was responding to a question from a Member of Parliament from the uMkhonto weSizwe Party who had asked about his r
ole in leading government efforts to fast-track land reform and coordinate programmes to accelerate land reform and agricultural support. The MP inquired whether the Deputy President intended to facilitate the introduction of a Bill by the government to amend Section 25 of the Constitution to give effect to expropriation without compensation instead of expropriation with nil compensation.

Regarding the matter of the introduction of a Bill to amend Section 25 of the Constitution, this is an issue that falls within the structures of Parliament. Honourable Members would remember that the sixth Parliament established the Joint Constitutional Review Committee, which conducted public hearings in all the provinces of South Africa to get public inputs on the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution. The country’s second-in-command said this process culminated in the development of a Bill that was aimed at amending Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation.

However, th
e National Assembly could not pass this Bill since its support could not meet the required two-thirds majority vote for the 18th Amendment of the Constitution. He told MPs that the current constitutional framework provides for the expropriation of property subject to just and equitable compensation. To this end, Parliament has passed the Expropriation Bill which has been sent to the President for assent. The Bill provides for the expropriation of property for a public purpose or in the public interest and matters connected therewith.

He assured Parliament that the agenda of accelerating land reform and land restitution will continue. However, we are certain that once the President has completed his consultation process, and assented the Bill into an act, the government will be in a better position to accelerate the pace of land reform, land restitution, and sustainable development that will benefit all the people of South Africa.