For immediate release

27 February 2018
PARLIAMENT RESOLVES ON EXPROPRIATION OF LAND WITHOUT COMPENSATION
The National Assembly today agreed to the principle of the expropriation of land without
compensation within the context of ensuring food security, economic growth and radical
economic transformation.
The amendments tabled by the ANC, as amendments to a motion by the opposition;
resolved that the Constitutional Review Committee of Parliament, reviews Section 25 of the
Constitution and other clauses where necessary, to sufficiently cater for the principle of land
expropriation without compensation. The Constitutional Review Committee has been
directed to prioritise this issue and report back to parliament by 30 August 2018.
This resolution by the National Assembly is in line with the resolution of the 54th National
Conference of the ANC which resolved that the ANC should, as a matter of policy, pursue
expropriation of land without compensation. Conference resolved that this should be
pursued without destabilising the agricultural sector; without endangering food security in
our country; and without undermining economic growth and job creation.
Further to this, the President of the ANC and the President of the Republic of South Africa,
Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, in his State of the Nation Address, made a commitment that
government would continue the land reform programme that entails expropriation of land
without compensation, making use of all mechanisms at the disposal of the State. He
further said it will be implemented in a manner that will increase agricultural production,
improve food security, and ensure that the land is returned to those from whom it was
taken under the brutality of colonialism and apartheid.
The Land, insisted the Freedom Charter, “Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It.” This
meant that “restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land
re-divided amongst those who work it.”
The ANC in Parliament appreciates the need to take bold steps that will transform our
economy including land ownership and reform. This resolution therefore heralds a new era
of intensified land distribution to address the long standing national grievance of African
people around land dispossession.
We look forward to the outcome of the Constitutional Review processes on the modalities
of expropriation of land without compensation. As the ANC in Parliament, we will closely
monitor this process.
Issued by the Office of the ANC Chief Whip