The Black First, Land First (BLF) political party says it was excited when the parliamentary motion of land expropriation was passed, but now realises “it was a political gimmick to deceive South Africans into believing that there is going to be land expropriation without compensation. Where in fact, this is a postponement of that eventuality, to a date, which nobody knows.”
Speaking to Political Analysis South Africa on Friday, 2 March, the party’s leader, Andile Mngxitama, argued, “there is not going to be any amendment of the constitution before the 2019 elections. Politicians of the EFF [Economic Freedom Fighters] and the ANC [African National Congress], under Cyril Ramaphosa, have connived to use land expropriation as an electioneering issue, not to address the land question.”
“Because under normal circumstances what they should have done is to defer the matter for amendment to the public works committee, which already has an expropriation bill. They haven’t done so, instead they are asking for a review, not an amendment – a review by the constitutional review committee, which never amends any legislation,” says Mngxitama.
“So we have been hoodwinked. If anybody believes that the National Assembly agreement was about amending the constitution in this fashion of Parliament, they have been misled, completely.”
Mngxitama explains, “a big concern is that both Julius Malema and Cyril Ramaphosa are agreed that land expropriation must not mean redistributing land which is productively used by white people. There is consensus there between the two. Meaning black people must get reject land, the land that white people don’t want, is the land they say if and when expropriation happens, we shall get. So, this thing is a joke. This land expropriation without compensation discussion in Parliament is a joke.”
He says his party supports “land expropriation without compensation, we are not rejecting land expropriation without compensation, but we are rejecting the process. This process is about talking land expropriation to precisely deny the implementation of land expropriation. It is land expropriation without land expropriation basically. We reject this scheme of Julius Malema and Cyril Ramaphosa to hoodwink our people into believing that land is going to be returned.”
Asked if the BLF feared that land expropriation might impact food security and economic stability, Mngxitama, retorted “No. Black people are outside the economic mainstream; we are in a permanent state of economic crisis because of our landlessness. It is colonial thinking to suggest that land redistribution to blacks is equal to economic crisis. In fact, land redistribution to us, with the necessary support would end the permanent state of economic crisis we are in. But this thinking that don’t give black people land because that is going to affect the economy, is racist thinking, which is being internalised by both Ramaphosa and Malema.”