ANC lied about nationalisation, union says
2011-08-04 20:04
Johannesburg - An admission by Cosatu that an ANC task team was looking at a model of nationalisation to implement proved the ANC "blatantly lied", TAU SA said on Thursday.
"It is clear that the ANC Youth League's demands... are not only remarks by a bunch of young hot-heads," the farming union's president Ben Marais said.
"It is in fact supported by both the ANC and Cosatu, probably based on the SACP's communist agenda."
On Thursday, Cosatu economist Chris Malekane said nationalisation was going to happen and it was just the manner in which it would be implemented that needed to be decided.
Speaking at a debate in Johannesburg, he said they encouraged the youth league to place nationalisation firmly on the agenda.
All the parties represented at the last ANC national executive committee meeting had supported nationalisation and if the task team produced a study that looked at only the feasibility of nationalisation, it would be rejected outright, Malekane said.
"We'll have to compensate in the interests of the public, but not in a way that will cripple the South African state... there has to be a balance."
He said land was a natural asset that should be owned by the state and used by farmers, and that no compensation should be given for land.
Reacting, Marais said no compensation for land meant farmers were being targeted "to be destroyed and to be exterminated".
"Is this the reason why farm attacks and murders do not get the attention that it requires, for each farmer who is no longer there is an issue less to deal with?"
TAU SA called on organised agriculture and business to meet urgently to protect every parties' interests against the threat of nationalisation.
- SAPA
