ARTICLE: IMPRESSIONS OF THE (FIRST) DIALOGUE ON PROPERTY, LAND REFORM AND SECTION 25

The National Forum for Dialogue on Land Reform, held at the at the end of March in Johannesburg, was the first of many public dialogues on the land question, more specifically whether section 25 of the Constitution should be amended to enable expropriation without compensation (EWC). The Dialogue was organised – at the request of the (ANC members of the) Constitutional Review Committee – by the Gordon Institute for Business Science (GIBS), Roelf Meyer’s In Transformation Initiative and the Nelson Mandela University. Most organisations and individuals were invited at very short notice: in the case of the FW de Klerk Foundation, the invite came less than a week before the Dialogue took place. The agenda boasted a notable slate of speakers on the most topical issue confronting South Africa. Despite initial concerns about who was invited and who not, the Foundation – whose theme for 2017/18 is Land and Property – took the opportunity attend the two-day meeting. Ivor Jenkins, one of the organisers, confirmed that the event was organised in a very short space of time, and that some organisations had erroneously not been invited in time, but in the end those who really wanted to attend, could do so.





