We have legalised theft

The proposal by the government that section 25 of the constitution be amended to provide for expropriation without compensation amounts to little more than a proposal that theft be legalised.

What is overlooked by both proponents and opponents of land expropriation is that it is already in use in SA. International treaties on the sanctity of intellectual property have been broken, with the connivance of India, when the rights of the developers of antiretroviral medicines were abrogated in favour of generic substitutes. If SA is to be regarded as a moral country then there is no place for an “end justifies the means” morality.

The National Credit Regulator and debt counsellors are engaged in wholesale expropriation without compensation; even AfriForum remains silent in the face of this concerted campaign. If a combination of debt counsellors and magistrates are convinced that a person is overindebted and cannot repay what is owing, the creditor is deprived of his claim.

In generally accepted accounting principles, debt is regarded as an asset. To summarily reduce a company’s assets is effectively expropriation without compensation. The biggest sufferers of this are Ellerines and Steinhoff. After Steinhoff acquired Tekkie Town it encountered its troubles.

Errol Callaghan Goodwood