Renewed call for talks on SA’s constitution at Sobukwe memorial lecture at NMU

South Africa’s political system provides policy mechanisms to enable land redistribution, but constitutional constraints have slowed the pace of land reform.

This is according to Wits School of Governance’s Prof Kwandiwe Kondlo, who agrees with calls for the country to reopen constitutional talks.

Kondlo was delivering the keynote address at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Memorial Institutional Public Lecture at Nelson Mandela University (NMU) on Wednesday.

The lecture, hosted by the faculty of education, marked the first event in the university’s 2026 Institutional Public Lecture (IPL) series.

Responding to questions from the floor, Kondlo described SA’s constitution as a product of compromise.

“Our constitution is not bad. Section 25 of the constitution does speak to land reform,” he said. “But yes, I agree that the problem with the constitution is that what it gives you with the right hand, it takes with the left.

We get this land, we do not know how to utilise it and eventually we sell it back. But that weakness speaks to the weakness of government. You cannot give land to our people without support

—  Prof Kwandiwe Kondlo, Wits School of Governance

“That is why I agree with people who say we must have serious constitutional talks again because that has slowed land reform, despite the good policies we have on paper.”

Kondlo said another major obstacle to meaningful land reform was the government’s failure to adequately support beneficiaries of land redistribution programmes.

“We do have people who have benefited from land restitution. They have received pieces of farms and smallholdings,” he said. “What happens? Within two years, they rent the same land back to Afrikaners or they sell it back.

“We get this land, we do not know how to utilise it and eventually we sell it back. But that weakness speaks to the weakness of government. You cannot give land to our people without support,” Kondlo said.

Earlier in his lecture, titled “Robert Sobukwe: Reading the Signs of the Times”, Kondlo argued that SA needs leaders capable of historical and contextual foresight.

“A point Sobukwe subtly makes in his letter to Benjamin Pogrund is that the domain of time cannot be unimportant in a politics of emancipation, as the spirals of time and context give leadership substance and foresight,” he said.

We are humbled and grateful that Nelson Mandela University is able to use public platforms such as this lecture series to continue reflecting on the life, contribution and philosophy of our father, Robert Sobukwe.

—  Prof Zethu Cakata, Unisa

Prof Zethu Cakata from the department of psychology at the University of South Africa delivered the formal response to the lecture.

In her welcoming address, vice-chancellor of Nelson Mandela University, Sibongile Muthwa, said ongoing opposition to Graaff-Reinet’s name change to Robert Sobukwe Town reflected the enduring and, to some, intimidating legacy of Sobukwe.

“More than a century after his birth on December 5 1924, and 48 years after his passing, his ideas continue to resonate deeply within our society,” Muthwa said.

“We are humbled and grateful that Nelson Mandela University is able to use public platforms such as this lecture series to continue reflecting on the life, contribution and philosophy of our father, Robert Sobukwe.

“While it is disheartening that some of our compatriots, nearly five decades after his death, have mounted campaigns to oppose this name change, this is testimony to Sobukwe’s lasting and liberating — but to some, intimidating — legacy.

“It is a legacy he forged through persecution and personal suffering in his short lifetime,” she said.

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