S. Africa looks to accelerate land redistribution

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG

President Cyril Ramaphosa said Friday his ruling African National Congress (ANC) needed to "intensify radical economic transformation", which includes the expropriation of land without compensation.

Earlier this year, the South African parliament adopted a motion to amend the constitution so as to allow the expropriation of land without compensation. Most of the land in South Africa is owned by white nationals.

“While we [ANC] have done much to address the racial and gender distortions of the past, so much more remains to be done,’’ Ramaphosa said in his Freedom Day speech in the city of Bloemfontein.

Friday marked the 24th anniversary of the country’s Freedom Day, when the first democratic and non-racial elections were held on April 27, 1994, following the dismantling of the white minority regime known as apartheid.

“So many of our people still experience hunger, millions are still unemployed, many still do not have houses, electricity or clean water,” he said.

Ramaphosa said there were still huge gaps in wealth and opportunity between white and black South Africans. He added there were also inequalities between women and men.

He said there was a need to transform the ownership, control and management of the economy so that black South Africans and women were fully represented and could equally benefit.

Many companies and businesses in South Africa are still owned by white nationals.

“As we celebrate the freedoms we have achieved and the great advances we have made, let us use this Freedom Day to affirm our determination to intensify the struggle for economic freedom for all our people,” he said.

He said that despite the social-economic challenges, his government was trying to eradicate poverty by providing social grants, access to health care and the provision of houses to the poor.