South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has “assured ANC volunteers” that his ruling African National Congress (ANC) is going to seize white land without any compensation, confirming an earlier commitment he made in that country’s parliament—even though it has now been admitted that 90 percent of all black-seized farms have failed and lie fallow.

Speaking in the town of Tembisa, east of Johannesburg on Friday, Ramaphosa told an enthusiastic crowd of blacks that that “We are going to take land and when we take land we are going to take it without compensation.”

“We are going to do it in the interest of our people because our people want land for housing, they want land so that they can live, they want land so that they can use it as an economic resource.”

“We are going to embark on an orderly process of getting land into the hands of our people,” he said, adding that violent land seizures were not going to be used.

The ANC, at its December 2017 conference, resolved to initiate amendments to the Constitution to include land expropriation without compensation. This was followed up in 2018 when the South African parliament voted through a motion supporting land expropriation without compensation.

The matter has been referred to the constitutional review committee, which will hold public hearings.

The ANC is on its third land policy change in a desperate effort to fast-track land redistribution and restitution. It has faced criticism for its slow pace of land redistribution with opposition parties such as the black nationalist “”Economic Freedom Fighters” increasing in support over the slow “progress.”

At first, the ANC adopted a “willing buyer/willing seller” policy, but it struggled to find “willing buyers” who were prepared to pay market value to the white owners.

As a result, in 2012, the ANC created a “valuer general” to “evaluate” the price of land in an attempt to counter the high prices farm owners were demanding.

In October 2017, senior ANC official—and contender for the ANC leadership at the time—Mathew Phosa, admitted that 90 percent of all “land reform projects” which had seen white land handed over to blacks had ended in total failure.

“Over 90% of claims are currently settled through financial compensation, which does not help the process at all. It perpetuates dispossession. It also undermines economic empowerment‚” said Phosa.

He added that 70 percent of all agricultural land in the northernmost province of Limpopo that was handed over to blacks was now lying fallow. “It means you are losing jobs‚ you are losing your food security advantage‚ your global competitiveness‚ and you are not selling things,” he said.