Land reform needs an act as forceful as war: ANCYL

2012-06-19 22:23

Ronald Lamola (File, Sapa)

Durban - It is an illusion if South Africans believe they can get their land back peacefully, ANC Youth League deputy president Ronald Lamola said in Durban on Tuesday.

Lamola again called for the expropriation of land without compensation. He said youth unemployment could not be dealt with unless land was expropriated.

"We need an act as forceful as war to bring it back to the Africans."

He said it was an illusion if South Africans believed they could get their land back peacefully.

South Africa needs a minister of nationalisation, Lamola said.

Such a minister would have a mandate in line with the Freedom Charter, he said in a lecture on economic freedom at the Durban University of Technology.

While policemen had been forced to apologise to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, "corporate South Africa has never been put before the TRC".

About 100 people protested outside the hall where Lamola was speaking. Lamola's lecture at the Durban University of Technology started an hour late after journalists initially outnumbered supporters.

As Lamola was being introduced, loud singing could be heard outside the hall. The opposing faction wore T-shirts and displayed posters that read "ANCYL 100% Support for Zuma".

University security prevented them from entering Mansfield Hall.

Lamola said the ANC leadership had ignored the ANCYL's autonomy when expelling its former president Julius Malema from the party.

- SAPA