ANCYL wants 'radical' land reform

ANCYL wants 'radical' land reform

2010-04-30 11:13
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The World According to Julius Malema

Johannesburg -

The ANC Youth League supported President Jacob Zuma's call for a review of the "willing buyer willing seller" land redistribution strategy, a spokesperson said on Friday."The African National Congress Youth League is totally behind President Jacob Zuma’s call for a decisive land redistribution strategy, particularly the long overdue review of the willing buyer-willing seller principle," said a statement from Floyd Shivambu who had just returned from a league field trip to Venezuela on oil nationalisation.The ANCYL also agreed with Black Management Forum (BMF) president Jimmy Manyi's contention that the constitutional imperative of providing a fair price for land needed to be revised because under the current system "exorbitant" market-related prices were being paid.Zuma broached the topic at a BMF conference on "unintended consequences" of the Constitution.No land invasions - ZumaBut, Zuma hastened to add there would be no land invasions, an apparent reference to Zimbabwe's land redistribution programme widely regarded as the main contributor to that country's economic crisis."There will be no similar kinds of land invasions in this country, because we do things within the law," he said.Zimbabwe's land redistribution policy was largely run by people calling themselves war veterans who would camp on farmers' property and either forcibly remove farmers or harass them into leaving. A void in agricultural knowledge, and of the funding required for inputs, saw the agricultural sector plunged into a crisis that left huge swathes of the country dependent of food aid.The league said that historically defined racial inequalities should be appreciated and that it would lobby for a "more radical and decisive" economic transformation and land redistribution programme."None of these programmes will undermine the rule of law, but will ensure that law is progressively utilised for redress purposes."The land reform department said that its core land reform programme was to redistribute 30% of white-owned agricultural land.RedistributionTo date 5.9 million hectares of land had been acquired through redistribution and restitution.The league's president Julius Malema recently said he supported Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's programme of land seizures from white farmers, and that South Africa's political freedom would mean nothing if a practical programme of intervention on property issues was not decided.He claimed that South Africans did not own their own country because the land was owned by foreigners.The league had already spoken out on its belief that mines should be nationalised, and, said Shivambu, on the Venezuela trip, they learnt how the state's control of oil contributed to the national fiscus."People are having immediate benefits from the state's control of the oil industry," said Shivambu, who accompanied Malema on the trip.
- SAPA
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Zuma wrong on Constitution - Zille2010-04-30 21:06

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Hlophe challenge to continue

Cape Town

- Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has dismissed President Jacob Zuma's charge that her party is abusing the Constitution by challenging government decisions in court."This is deeply ironic," Zille wrote in her we ekly newsletter on Friday."As everyone knows, it is Zuma who is the past-master of 'endless court actions' to prevent the law from taking its course."Zuma needs to understand that it is his unconstitutional behaviour that needs to be called into question not the DA's legal challenge of it. Far from 'petty politicking' - as Zuma has called these court cases yesterday - they are fundamental to the future health of our constitutional democracy."At a Black Management Forum symposium on Thursday, Zuma told delegates: "Going forward, we must protect our Constitution from abuse as South Africans."'Cheap political points'"We have noticed in recent months a tendency to use the Constitution by some parties to block transformation, or to seek to reverse decisions made by the executive, through endless court actions," he said."The Constitution should be used for protection when there are genuine grounds, not for petty politicking and to score cheap political points."The DA has applied for a high court review of the National Prosecuting Authority's decision to withdraw corruption charges against Zuma.The party successfully challenged the Judicial Service Commission's decision to dismiss the complaint of gross misconduct against Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe. They are also seeking to have the appointment of Menzi Simelane as head of the prosecuting authority declared invalid.In her newsletter, Zille also dismissed Zuma's criticism of black economic empowerment at the symposium as disingenuous given the business dealings of the ANC's investment arm Chancellor House.BEE abuseThe president told the symposium: "We cannot allow an abuse of the policy to empower just a few. We also want government procurement opportunities to be actively used to promote the economic development of our people.""The unintended consequence of fronting is also still prevalent and seeks to defeat the objectives of BBBEE. We must work together as various sectors to expose and eradicate this practice wherever it occurs."Zille commented: "Zuma talks of BEE as if it was imposed on the ANC from elsewhere, as if he is powerless to take immediate action to stop it being perverted by the ANC.""If Zuma really wanted to stop 'fronting' he would shut down the biggest 'front company' in the country - the ANC's own front company, Chancellor House.""It is not intended to empower previously disadvantaged people, or to achieve what he calls 'broad-based empowerment'. It is designed to enrich the ANC."The ANC appears divided over whether to sell Chancellor House's controversial 25% stake in Hitachi Power Africa, which has been contracted to supply boilers for Eskom's new power stations.Zille lobbied the World Bank to make its loan to Eskom conditional on the ANC divesting. Party treasurer Mathews Phosa then promised to do so within six weeks after the loan was awarded earlier this month, but secretary general Gwede Mantashe has dug in his heels.
- SAPA
Read more on: politics da anc helen zille jacob zuma