CAPE TOWN, July 6 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday appointed an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on land reform to coordinate and implement measures to accelerate the redistribution of land nationwide.
The IMC, to be chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza, will also oversee the extension of security of tenure, the provision of agricultural support and the redress of spatial inequality within broad and comprehensive land redistribution and agricultural development programs, the president said.
He said the appointment of the IMC is in line with his commitment, made during his first State of the Nation Address in February this year, to accelerate land redistribution programs not only to redress a grave historical injustice, but also to bring more producers into the agricultural sector and to make more land available for cultivation towards security, rural development, poverty reduction and strengthening the economy.
Ramaphosa said he will also soon appoint a panel of experts to provide technical support to the IMC as it carries out its important task of expediting land reform through all available measures, including expropriation without compensation.
The latest development came as the pace for South Africa's controversial land reform was gaining momentum, giving rise to fears among white farmers and tribal chiefs for losing their land.
South Africa's white minority controls most of the country's land, while 13 percent of communal land is in the hands of tribal chiefs.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) wants to redistribute land both controlled by whites and local chiefs to the landless blacks.
In February this year, the National Assembly passed a motion on expropriation of land without compensation.
The motion allows for the review of Section 25 of the Constitution and other clauses when necessary to sufficiently cater for the principle of land expropriation without compensation.
The parliament's Constitutional Review Committee is currently conducting public hearings nationwide on the land issue. These public hearings will take place in all the nine provinces until August 2018.
On Thursday, the government called on all interested parties to participate peacefully in these hearings and appealed to the public to remain tolerant of different views, in order to ensure that all have a fair opportunity to participate in the hearings.
The ANC-led government has assured that land expropriation without compensation should be pursued without destabilizing the agricultural sector, endangering food security in the country, or undermining economic growth and job creation.
Since taking power in 1994, the ANC has made land redistribution one of its main policies. In South Africa, land remains predominantly in white hands more than two decades after the end of apartheid, sparking growing discontent among the blacks.
