Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Politics

ANC Pushes South African Land-Seizure Plan as Election Looms

  • Ramaphosa announces party will pursue change to constitution
  • Lawmakers have started process to allow expropriation
Access to land is one of the flashpoints of inequality in the nation of about 58 million where wealth and poverty are largely divided along racial lines.

Access to land is one of the flashpoints of inequality in the nation of about 58 million where wealth and poverty are largely divided along racial lines.

Photographer: Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images

Updated on

South Africa’s ruling party intensified a campaign to permit seizing land without compensation to address the legacy of apartheid as it seeks to maintain its majority in next year’s election.

The rand sank after President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the head of the ruling African National Congress, read a statement on national television late Tuesday, that softened language saying expropriation would only be in a manner that doesn’t harm the economy, agricultural production or food security.