President Cyril Ramaphosa
Land redistribution is necessary to correct the injustices of South Africa’s apartheid history, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the diplomatic community in Pretoria on Friday.
"Parliament is considering whether Section 25 needs to be amended or not to allow for expropriation of land without compensation, which will accelerate land reform and correct historical injustice," he said.
Ramaphosa was addressing the diplomatic community accredited to South Africa - including ambassadors, high commissioners, consuls-general and charges d’affaires - on the much talked about process of land redistribution in South Africa.
Ramaphosa insisted that solutions would be found on "issues on the domestic front".
"We will be able to build our own consensus as a nation, as we did in 1994. We will find a solution to this soon, and it will be a South African-made solution," he said.
The 700 000 submissions to Parliament on land reform had revealed that the country was a nation that engaged on issues of national importance, Ramaphosa said.
"There is a national debate that is raging in a wonderful way on land reform. The land reform process, as it unfolds, will be undertaken in an orderly manner that advances the interest of all, and not a few," he assured diplomats.
The land reform debate has received attention across the globe, and has left the international community of investors uncertain about the South African economy, which took a blow last week after it went into a technical recession.
"We look forward to welcoming investors from all countries represented here. We will seek to ensure, as we did in 1994 when we crafted our Constitution, that we will take the interests of all of our people into account," he said.
Ramaphosa thanked diplomats for their continued efforts in advancing the "interests of the world".
"This engagement is greatly enhanced as we continue to interact with leaders of your countries. We are on a journey and we are glad to undertake it with you," he concluded.