Land debate heats up in KZN

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Durban - The DA’s KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Francois Rodgers launched a scathing attack on the ANC and the EFF, accusing them of using the land debate as a tool for electioneering. On Tuesday, the party launched the Sisebenzela Wena Title Deeds Campaign aimed at helping RDP housing beneficiaries receive their title deeds. Although targeted at the whole province, the launch took place at Mount Moriah, north of Durban. The DA said no household, 18 years after the homes were handed over, had received a title deed in the township with 2500 houses. “The only reason they (ANC) will tell you about this (expropriation of land without compensation) is so you can vote for them in 2019. If they felt the people needed ownership to property and land, why do you live like this without title deeds?” Rogers asked. The DA estimated an 87037 housing backlog in ANC-run eThekwini, citing a 2016 report by the Public Service Accountability Monitor. Rogers said the ANC was a stumbling block towards land ownership and manipulated the community through dependency.

“Your problem is the ANC because what is a house if you don’t own it nor the land it’s built on? All it does is make you dependent on the state.”

DA KZN leader, Zwakele Mncwango told the community that the ANC did not care about them and their dignity, adding that “every title deed delayed, is dignity denied”.

“We should not allow the ANC and EFF to lie. The constitution does not prevent successful land reform, the constitution promotes land reform. The ANC has failed and the EFF wants to endorse their continued failure to put the people first,” Mncwango said.

In February the EFF proposed in Parliament a motion for expropriation of land without compensation which was passed by the majority of the national assembly. That led to Parliament’s constitutional review committee starting nationwide public consultations on whether Section 25, which deals with property rights, needs to be amended to allow the state to expropriate land without compensation.

eThekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede said there was a backlog of 71815 homes post-1994 and 11262 pre-1994 that still had to be transferred to beneficiaries.

“The problem with the late issuing of title deeds is only affecting black people. Their dignity has been affected by this problem.”

“Many black people are unable to take out insurance on their property because the banks require a title deed. This also creates further issues when the owner of the house passes away without receiving their title deed and the siblings fight over the ownership of the house,” Gumede said.

She said giving people land was an ANC programme of action for the total restoration of dignity.

“A target for the current financial year is to finalise 3000 title deeds. We have already issued about 1300 title deeds to date,” she said.

Read: Durban mayor calls for investigation into land grabs in the city

The Mercury