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Majority Party in Troubled Nation Plans to Seize Private Land

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Cyril Ramaphosa, the new leader of South Africa’s dominant African National Congress (ANC) party, has promised a “radical economic transformation” for the country, including the possibility of seizing land without compensation.

“This conference has resolved that the expropriation of land without compensation should be among the mechanisms available to government to effect to land reform and redistribution,” he declared.

He added that any redistribution must be done in a way that is “sustainable.”

A considerable portion of land in South Africa is owned by white farmers, though their status is hardly privileged. White farmers have been under siege, suffering a murder rate 20 times the international average.

Being a farmer in South Africa is more dangerous than being a police officer. The South African government has been noticeably reticent to stop the killings, and South African President Jacob Zuma has even been filmed singing the revolutionary song “Kill The Boer.” (Read more from “Majority Party in Troubled Nation Plans to Seize Private Land” HERE)

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Government Has No Clue How Much Land It Bought With $815 Million

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Interior Department officials have no idea how much land they bought for $815 million, nor if the properties are being used for their intended purpose, a government watchdog reported Wednesday.

The department’s officials couldn’t provide its inspector general with data about land purchase programs, the watchdog’s report said. The inspector general consequently surveyed 108 programs and found that 16 of them awarded 701 grants between 2014 and 2015 to purchase $815 million worth of land.

The Interior Department “does not centrally track information about grants awarded for the purpose of acquiring land,” the inspector general said, adding:

As such, [the Interior Department] is unable to identify how much grant money has been used to purchase land, how much land has been purchased and whether that land is being used for its intended purpose. Without an adequate process in place to monitor funds used to purchase land, [the department] is potentially exposed to significant risk of wasted funds.

Additionally, less than half of the 278 grant recipients reported their land inventories to the department programs that funded them, which violated federal regulations, according to the report. (Read more from “Government Has No Clue How Much Land It Bought With $815 Million” HERE)

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10 Years After This City Seized a Woman’s Land: An Empty Lot

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It’s been a decade since the city of New London, Conn. forcibly took the Fort Trumbull neighborhood for what became private-development, and now all that remains is an empty lot.

In 1998, the area surrounding the waterfront neighborhood saw an increased surge of economic development. This prompted city officials to decide the Fort Trumbull could be better used for other purposes.

According to the Institute for Justice, the plan was to take the land from the residents and give it to the New London Development Corporation (NLDC), a private body. Eminent domain allows the government to take land for the purposes of the public good so long as property owners are offered just compensation.

Residents, however, did not like the idea. In an effort to protect their homes, Susette Kelo and her neighbors took their city to court. After years of fighting, Kelo v. City of New London went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. To the dismay of the residents, however, the court ruled in 2005 in favor of New London.

“When I first started this battle, it was about me and this little pink house,” Kelo told The Daily Signal. “But it grew into something much bigger than that. It turned into a nationwide battle to save the Fort Trumbull neighborhood.” (Read more from “10 Years After This City Seized a Woman’s Land: An Empty Lot” HERE)

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