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President Cyril Ramaphosa says accelerated land reform has the potential to improve goodwill between the people of South Africa. In his Reconciliation Day address to hundreds of people in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, he emphasized that land reform is key to furthering reconciliation, and “central to eliminating inequality in our country”.
“Far from being a measure that will fuel tensions or set race relations back, accelerated land reform has the potential to improve goodwill between the people of our country,” Ramaphosa added.
The president says for South Africa to strive for equality there needs to be expropriation of land without compensation.
“Most of the country’s land remains in the hands of a few people in our country. We must consider that failure to resolve the land issue will threaten the stability of our democratic nation.”
His address follows Parliament’s recommendation earlier this year to amend section 25 of the Constitution to expropriate land without compensation.
“We can’t be a reconciled nation for as long as the majority of the people of South Africa continue to suffer from the injustices of the past. We need to pursue, with greater effort, an inclusive economy by improving the skills of our young people.”
Ramaphosa says, “So long as millions of South Africans are burdened by poverty and underdevelopment and the prospects for a better life are absent, we’ll not have achieved our goal for justice.”
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