South African leader stresses land reform for stability

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG

Redistribution of land among South Africans will improve further reconciliation in the multiracial country, which emerged from decades of apartheid in 1994, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

Land is a sensitive issue in South Africa, where the majority of the natural resource remains in the hands of a few whites.

Commercial farms that produce the majority of the food in the country are mostly owned by the white, as well.

Addressing crowds in the Eastern Cape Province, during celebrations to mark National Reconciliation Day, Ramaphosa said his country has not made sufficient progress in addressing the land issue.

"On this day that we have dedicated to reconciliation, we must consider that failure to resolve the land issue in a just and equitable manner threatens the stability of our democratic nation," he warned.

The president said the equitable distribution of land has been a consistent call of the overwhelming majority of South Africans.

Earlier this month, the country’s National Assembly adopted a report recommending that the constitution be amended for land to be expropriated without compensation.

However, some White advocacy groups in the country expressed outrage that some of their land will be expropriated and redistributed to landless blacks. Some have even threatened to drag the government to court over the issue.

Most black South Africans say the huge chunks of land owned by whites in the country previously belonged to their forefathers but were taken during colonialism.

Ramaphosa said: "Accelerated land reform has the potential to improve goodwill between the races in South Africa,"

The National Day of Reconciliation is celebrated to foster reconciliation and national unity following the end of apartheid over two decades ago.