The African National Congress (ANC) has agreed to seek change in the constitution to push through expropriation of land without compensation. The party agreed to the proposal during a debate at its 54th elective conference yesterday. Delegates, however, did not agree on a deadline for the change and said that the policy should not affect other sectors.
This means that the ruiling party has sought to accelerate the redistribution of land to the country’s black majority. This has caused major fractions within the ANC on how to achieve it. Earlier this week, at the conference, the ANC elected a new president for its ruiling party. It was a tough call between former AU chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa but in the end it was Ramaphosa who came out victorious.
For the ANC’s plans to succeed, they need two thirds of lawmakers to approve a change in the constitution. The party currently holds 62% of the seats in Parliament and the opposition party the EFF which supports the proposal holds 6% of seats.
The amount of land owned by the government, and other racial groups who were disadvantaged under Apartheid, rose to 26.7% of agricultural land in 2016.
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