Parliament - President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday said the December 2017 resolution by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of expropriating land without compensation will not be taken off the table.





Delivering his State of the Nation Address, his first after being sworn in this week, Ramaphosa c ould, however, not provide details of the project which will entail the redistribution of land, stolen under colonial and apartheid white rule, to black South Africans.





"Government will undertake a process of consultation to determine the modalities of the implementation of this resolution," he said.





"We are determined that expropriation without compensation should be implemented in a way that increases agricultural production, improves food security and ensure that the land is returned to those from whom it was taken under colonialism and apartheid."





Ramaphosa said expropriation should not affect production and jobs, as the agricultural sector made the largest contribution to economic growth in the second and third quarters of last year.





He said government would be calling on banks to help with the expropriation project.





"We make a special call to financial institutions to be our partners in mobilising resources to accelerate the land redistribution programme as increased investment will be needed in this sector."







