# ‘We’re satisfied with SA’s land reform policy’— US Ambassador

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/2020/02/27/were-satisfied-with-sas-land-reform-policy-us-ambassador/
- Published: 2020-02-27T13:52:01+02:00
- Author: dearSA

![](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20191143/5072086b-
lana-marks-768x531-1.jpg "Lana Marks appointed as US Ambassador to South Africa")

In the wake of recent comments by United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 
the country’s ambassador to South Africa says she has been assured that private 
land will not be expropriated without compensation.

Speaking to the _Mail & Guardian_, US ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks responded
to Pompeo’s warning that plans to expropriate private property would be “disastrous”
for the economy. “I am 100% satisfied in the way in which President [Cyril] Ramaphosa
is handling everything — in a totally open and transparent manner. I am totally 
satisfied.

“I have personally advised all partners regarding this in the United States. There
will be no confiscation whatsoever of private land … So now, having said that there
will be no confiscation of any private land whatsoever, now is the time for major
US investment in South Africa.”

Marks later added that she has been assured that there will be no confiscation of
private land “across the board, in a transparent manner with President Ramaphosa”.

But legislation clarifying the circumstances in which land may be expropriated without
compensation is still in the process of being drafted.

The president said as much in his response to the State of the Nation debate last
Thursday.

Ramaphosa added that “land reform is an essential part of inclusive growth”.

“Unless we change the patterns of land ownership in this country — unless we give
all South Africans access to land for agriculture, for commerce, for housing — we
will not only be perpetuating a grave injustice, but we will also be constraining
the economic potential of our land and our people,” he said. “The lack of land is—
alongside the lack of skills — one of the greatest impediments to growth and prosperity.”

The Expropriation Bill was released for public comment in December 2018 and is likely
to be tabled in Parliament in June.

The Bill will be processed together with the amendment to section 25 of the Constitution,
which provides for expropriation without compensation. The first round of public
hearings on the constitutional amendment are set to start on February 28 in Mpumalanga
and the Free State.

At the Goldman Sachs investor conference in May last year, Ramaphosa reportedly 
allayed fears that investors would be prejudiced by land expropriation without compensation.

According to [BusinessTech](https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/317222/we-are-not-going-to-take-your-land-ramaphosa-to-investors/),
the president said: “I’ve said it before — foreign investors have nothing to fear;
there’s no way we can invite foreign investors to our country and say ‘come, invest’
and tomorrow we take your land away.

“That is not going to happen. That is not sensible. It’s not something that any 
sensible person does.”

In the interview with the _M&G_, Marks said she was not consulted by the US state
department on the land reform issue prior to Pompeo’s remarks last week.

“But I think he [Pompeo] was just addressing this to say ‘Please, South Africa, 
keep things in check’ … I think it was just a matter that was on his bucket list
in his huge responsibility in Africa and around the world,” Marks said.

Pompeo’s remarks were not the first time US government officials have stoked fears
about land expropriation in South Africa.

In 2018, US President Donald Trump tweeted that he had asked Pompeo to closely study“
the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations”.

But Marks said: “South Africa has seriously addressed all of the contentious issues
in the most serious and responsible manner. And I have relayed this clearly and 
articulately to Washington. And now is the time for serious American investment 
in South Africa.”

Marks, who was first approached  by Trump in November 2016 to become ambassador —
shortly after he was elected — only officially started work at the embassy in Pretoria
three years later.

Her first 90 days in the position have been marked by her ambitions to lift South
Africa into the top 20 of US trade partners. In 2019, South Africa was ranked 39th.

Marks said she has met some of the major US corporations engaged in industry in 
South Africa “for many years” with the view of increasing investment: “Obviously
South Africa faces its most daunting economic challenges since the dawn of democracy
a quarter of a century ago. And we are doing everything possible to assist with 
that flat economy to really raise it out of the doldrums.”

In response to Marks’ comment that “there will be no confiscation of any private
land whatsoever” under the new land reform legislation, spokesperson for the president
Khusela Diko noted that Ramaphosa has said, “Government is committed to accelerating
land reform and thus reversing what he calls the ‘original sin’ of land dispossession
of the oppressed people of South Africa.”

“He has further indicated that such land reform will be undertaken within the strict
confines of our laws, of which the Constitution is the most supreme. Both within
the country and elsewhere he has committed that South Africa will continue to protect
property rights, while setting out very clear policy positions on how land reform
will be accelerated.”

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