EFF: State must take over all land

Johannesburg - All land should be transferred to state ownership, according to the Economic Freedom Fighters' founding manifesto.

"The state should, through its legislative capacity, transfer all land to the state, which will administer and use land for sustainable development purposes," the EFF said in its manifesto.

"This transfer should happen without compensation, and should apply to all South Africans, black and white."

Once the land was under state control, those currently using land or intending to use it would have to apply for a "land-use licence".

The licence would only be granted once an application was filled out stating what the land would be used for, the EFF said.

The licence would be valid for 25 years and could be renewed based on whether the land was being used as planned.

"The state should, within this context, hold the right to withdraw the licence and reallocate the land for public purposes."

The EFF said expropriation without compensation was one of its seven non-negotiable "cardinal pillars".

During the launch of the "protest movement" earlier this month, its leader Julius Malema said the EFF had a plan that included the non-negotiable principles of land expropriation and nationalisation of mines, both without compensation.

"[The EFF is] the people's organisation, inspired by people's suffering on the ground," Malema said at the time.

It would embrace an "anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist ideology", and aspired to non-racialism and non-sexism. While white capitalist monopoly was an enemy of the EFF, "no one is going to be driven into the sea".

"You are going to be forced to share."

At a rally later that day in Sebokeng, Malema told residents that once the EFF became the ruling party it would take the land.

"We are going to take this government and once we take it, we are not going to negotiate, we are going to take our land.

"We are going to take it because it's our land."

He also said "those who want land must be given land".

In its manifesto the EFF said "no one should be allowed to own land forever".

"[This is]... because those who have money can, over time, buy huge plots of land and use them for counter-developmental private purposes, such as using land as game farms.

"A maximum of 30 years can then be placed on all land leases applied for by private corporations and individuals, with the state retaining the right to expropriate in instances where the land is not used for the purpose applied for."

The EFF is holding a conference in Soweto on Friday and Saturday to work out its policies and manifesto.