In a 30-page leaked document on land and the national question, titled What Then About Land Expropriation Without Compensation, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) elucidates both historic context but crucially an analysis of a resolution of the ANC’s 54th National Conference in December 2017 on “land expropriation without compensation”.
In a 30-page leaked document on land and the national question, titled What Then About Land Expropriation Without Compensation, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) elucidates both historic context but crucially an analysis of a resolution of the ANC’s 54th National Conference in December 2017 on “land expropriation without compensation”. Without going into the settings of the document about the “glorious National Democratic Revolution” and its “victory of 1994”, the document presents some important perspectives about debates inside the ANC, especially about non-racialism and expropriation of land without compensation (EWC).
Since 1996, the government declared the former Shaka Day, 24 September, as a new national holiday that would embrace the common heritage of the country, including its culture, history, wildlife, monuments, artwork, literature, music, folklore, languages, culinary traditions, and more.
The decision of the Land Claims Court last week whereby Akkerland Boerdery once again took ownership of the two farms it originally consisted of, almost went unnoticed. The ministerial notice of expropriation of 29 March – which gave the owners seven days to vacate and leave the farms – was overturned with costs. Apparently the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform (the infamous Maite Nkoana-Mashabane) admitted her Department made a mistake in issuing the notice of expropriation.
On 17 September, Minister for Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, announced that Kiswahili has been approved as a second language on offer to schools.
Your Royal Highnesses, Fellow Nobel Peace Laureates, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen… One of the inescapable implications of globalisation is an enormous increase in the interaction between people from different backgrounds, cultures, languages and religions. The management of the resulting cultural, language and religious diversity will be one of this century’s greatest challenges.
It might be easy to laugh off the comments about State capture in a lecture by former President Jacob Zuma in the Eastern Cape on 12 September as ludicrous, funny and weird – the rantings of a wounded former President. To say that the present crisis is a “politically-decorated expression of state capture” and there is no such thing as “State capture” while the work of the Zondo Commission (into State capture!) – and which he himself appointed – is underway, is nonsensical. At its best, it is a theoretical lesson in semantics, totally devoid of any realism. But that should not worry us. What is Zuma really up to – at worst?
The Joint Constitutional Review Committee was set up in the aftermath of the 27 February 2018 resolution in the National Assembly on expropriation without compensation (EWC).
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) recently published its 2017/18 Equality Report (the Report), which was submitted to Parliament. This has probably not attracted much attention, due to processes around expropriation without compensation (EWC), the Zondo State Capture Commission of Inquiry and other current news. One exception was the Solidarity Movement. They announced that the Report means that the country’s affirmative action legislation is unlawful and does not comply with international requirements. Solidarity is to approach the Courts for a declaratory order to clarify how employers and the Department of Labour should handle the situation until the law (as proposed by the SAHRC) is amended.
