Tensions ran high at the ANC national general council (NGC) as debates over the future of South Africa’s land reform programme once again exposed deep ideological rifts within the governing party under President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The land question, long regarded as a fundamental pillar of the ANC’s mission to redress apartheid-era dispossession, returned to centre stage when national executive committee (NEC) member Andile Lungisa challenged the party’s approach to land expropriation.
Lungisa took aim at what he described as a dilution of the ANC’s original land expropriation resolution.
He argued that the party should revive its attempt to amend Section 25 of the constitution to allow for explicit expropriation without compensation.
According to those present at the NGC economic transformation commission session, Lungisa insisted that the ANC’s adopted resolutions would achieve better and quicker outcomes than existing legislation and should be implemented as originally conceived.
Lungisa’s call was met with fierce resistance from fellow NEC member Sihle Zikalala, who defended the government’s current land restitution and redistribution programmes.
Zikalala argued that the recently signed Expropriation Act, along with the NEC’s support for expropriation with nil compensation in specific circumstances, formed a coherent and workable framework that the state should continue to follow.
His remarks infuriated Lungisa, who allegedly accused Zikalala of advancing a “selling out” position that flies in the face of the movement’s transformative agenda.
Zikalala stood his ground, reminding Lungisa that the NEC had already endorsed the principle of nil-compensation expropriation under defined conditions.
“Mbanjwa [Lungisa] lost his cool and told Zikalala there was no NEC resolution of this nature, at least in this term, and argued that the ‘nil compensation’ language was sneaked into the ANC lexicon by moderates and liberals who want to water down the party’s resolutions to appease capital,” said a senior leader who was part of the commission.
Another delegate added that Lungisa remained adamant that the ANC’s true mandate was clear: the constitution’s Section 25 must be amended, and any compromise amounted to a betrayal.
Delegates sympathetic to Zikalala attempted to enter the debate, but Lungisa stood firm, insisting that the party must honour the decisions taken at previous conferences and remain true to its strategic objective to fight for the return of the land to its rightful owners. The land question has shaped internal ANC politics for more than a decade.
It was central to the ANC Youth League’s “economic freedom in our lifetime” rallying call, a period during which Lungisa emerged as one of its prominent leaders.
The issue again caused major fractures at the ANC’s bruising 2017 national conference, where competing ideological factions clashed over how aggressively the state should pursue land redistribution.
After intense debates, the radicals emerged victorious, with the conference resolving that the amendment of Section 25 of the constitution for land expropriation without compensation should be pursued.
In the same NGC meeting this week, Lungisa also criticised the government for selling state assets to private individuals and condemned public-private partnerships (PPPs).
He argued that PPPs amounted to handing over strategic assets to private interests, rejecting assertions from other delegates that such arrangements were simply long-term leases. He insisted the state should instead focus on building capacity and strengthening public ownership.
The consolidated report of the outcomes of the NGC commissions is still in the works and will most likely be completed in January.
