Durban - Sihle Zikalala, KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs told a gathering of captains of industry in Durban on Thursday that land expropriation without compensation would not undermine future investment in the economy, or damage agricultural production and food security.
“Our interventions will be done in a manner to ensure that no harm is done to other sectors of the economy.
Zikalala was speaking at the KZN Growth Coalition breakfast.
Recently, President Ramaphosa appointed Deputy President David Mabuza and an Inter-Ministerial Committee to advise him on the best ways to carry out land reform,” Zikalala said.
The Inter-Ministerial Team has reaffirmed that government’s approach to land reform will be based on three elements: increased security of tenure, land restitution and land redistribution, he said.
Zikalala, who is also chairperson of the ANC in the province, spoke hours after US President Donald Trump tweeted, following a Fox News report on land expropriation in South Africa, and asked his secretary of state to look into land expropriation and the killing of farmers in South Africa.
"I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large-scale killing of farmers. South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers," Trump tweeted. On Wednesday President Cyril Ramaphosa told Parliament that he did not agree with the Economic Freedom Fighters' position on the nationalisation of land.