Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - December 14, 2001
Jaspreet Kindra
Frustrated with what they consider the governments inadequate land reform policies, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the National Land Committee (NLC) at an indaba over the weekend applied their minds to ways to adopt TACs lobbying methods.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions will also lend its support. Cosatu earlier this year successfully lobbied the SACC to join its campaign for anti-retrovirals.
These developments take further the incipient formation of a broad front outside the ranks of the ruling party, reported by the Mail & Guardian in October. Eddie Makue, head of SACCs justice ministries, said the churches would also use the experience from the situation in Zimbabwe to try to convince the government to hold a promised land summit to address land reform issues in the coming months.
The three organisations believe the governments macroeconomic policy - the growth, employment and redistribution strategy - has entrenched the "willing buyer and willing seller" principle and led to the "commodification" of land.
They believe land reform for food security must take precedence over profits. The conference had a go at the governments agricultural policy: "The substitution of white farmers with black commercial farmers does not necessarily lead to a fundamental change of relations in the countryside, nor promote more equitable access to resources," it noted.
The land-reform campaign will begin in the new year with picketing, rallies and intensive lobbying of government agencies. Makue said a working group has been established to draw up the national campaign programme.
The SACC and the NLC will demand that underutilised land be expropriated; that ceilings be imposed on the size and number of properties owned by individuals; that a five-year moratorium on land sales to foreigners be imposed; and that the state be given first option in accessing liquidated farms for use in equitable land reform.
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