PAC minister wants to give land to ‘rightful owners’

If the PAC’s Mzwanele Nyhontso, the newly appointed minister of land reform & rural development, had his way the government would already be taking land from whites and giving it to blacks.

“If I was in Mahlamba Ndlopfu [the official presidential residence] with a majority, we would have started by now. I would be asking you: 'Where do you want your farm?'", he said in an interview this week.

“If the PAC had won the elections, I would be saying, ‘the land is going to be restored to its rightful owners’.”

Nyhontso was a surprise inclusion in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of national unity cabinet as the PAC won only single seat in parliament in the May elections. Even more surprising was his appointment to a contentious portfolio that has previously been led by senior ANC members.

The PAC’s establishment in 1959 was anchored around the land question. The party believes that whites are land thieves, and their title deeds are bloodstained, Nyhontso said.

“We were not going to expropriate the land, expropriation means you talk to them. In fact, this expropriation is related to willing buyer, willing seller — because I must be willing to give this land and I must expropriate from you because legally it belongs to you.”

Nyhontso said if the PAC had won the elections, and had the required two-thirds majority, it would change the constitution to, among other things, explicitly provide for expropriation of land without compensation.

But for now he has to work within the GNU policies and within the prescripts of the law.

While the PAC believes section 25 of the constitution — which stipulates compensation must be paid for land that is expropriated — “is a problem”, Nyhontso said his party acknowledges that the clause cannot be blamed for government failures on land reform.

He said existing laws and policies can be used to ensure land is redistributed, restitution is carried out and other problems, including the backlog of land claims, are addressed. 

He blames land reform failings on lack of political will. “I don’t want to sound radical, I am not a populist. I must say the reality as we know it. We must utilise what we have.”

Nyhontso said he won’t “waste” his five-year term trying to remove section 25 and would rather use his tenure to redistribute land using the existing legal framework.

He has identified the backlog in land claims as a top priority. He has also noticed that it was difficult to give people title deeds and wants to see the fast-tracking of the transfer of state land to the people.

A military veteran, Nyhontso said he plans to use his position in the cabinet to fight for the right of veterans to a decent standard of living including giving them land.

The PAC initially aligned itself with the “progressive caucus”, parties such as the EFF and the MK Party that oppose the GNU. But, acting on the advice of PAC elders such as Mike Matsobane and former president Stanley Mogoba, the party changed its tune.

“The national executive committee of the PAC felt that we've been isolating ourselves since 1994. We've been outside this system, criticising this system at a level where it would be difficult for me and others who are campaigning for this organisation to respond to a simple question: 'Nifuna ulawula, nakhe nalawula phi?' (What have you ever run or governed?).

“Such questions would never arise again.”

He also has to address land management issues in KwaZulu-Natal concerning the Ingonyama Trust, led by Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini.

Nyhontso met the king on Monday and the Zulu royal house “raised everything they wanted to raise”. He declined to go into the details of their discussions, saying he had asked for more time as he was new in the portfolio.