Morning Star.png Unions Hail Land Reform Law Tackling Apartheid's Legacy James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 28 May 2016 South African trade unions welcomed a new land reform law yesterday which allows expropriation to reverse centuries of colonialism. The African National Congress-dominated parliament in Cape Town passed the Expropriation Bill on Thursday, replacing the apartheid-era 1975 Act of the same name. The legislation replaces the "willing buyer-willing seller" principle of land redistribution with the "just and equitable" principle of the 1994 post-apartheid constitution. Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) spokesman Sizwe Pamla praised the new law, saying it would address "the legacies of apartheid and colonialism." Redistribution of land from largely white ownership to black farmers, businesspeople and homeowners has been slow over the past 22 years of democratic rule. Landowners will be compensated except where the land was acquired through unlawful means or used for illegal purposes. "These are all provisions provided for in our democratic constitution but where government has been blocked from providing to the people because of resistance to transformation," Mr Pamla said. COSATU also condemned "hysterical attacks" on the legislation by the Free Market Foundation (FMF), South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) and opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party. "The SAIRR, FMF and DA clearly miss and are nostalgic for an era where this country belonged to a minority and the majority was treated as second-class citizens," Mr Pamla said. The DA has consistently opposed the ANC's efforts to transform post-apartheid society through the courts where it has failed in parliament. From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-306e-South-Africa-Unions-hail-land-refo rm-law-tackling-apartheids-legacy#.V0lTNfl9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
