Farmers vow to fight to the end

Bring it on!

This was the declaration by East London farmers as they drew a line in the sand on Wednesday night, vowing to even approach international courts if government forges ahead with the proposed expropriation of land without compensation.

This emerged at a Gonubie Farmers Association meeting at the Gonubie Farmers Hall, where ACDP MPL Steve Swart who sits on parliament’s coneight stitutional review committee told the farmers that 500,000 written submissions had been filed with the committee looking into amending section 25 of the constitution which would legalise expropriation of land without compensation.

At the meeting, Agri South Africa’s Brent McNamara said the farmer’s group was ready to use every legal means possible to fight land expropriation.

McNamara told about 500 farmers at the meeting that Agri SA had hired top legal minds to fight land expropriation.

“We have hired four advocates and four attorneys on a 24hour standby to get an urgent court order any time from the duty judge in Grahamstown.

“We also have all the police generals from local, provincial up to national on speed dial … We have built good relationship with the police. We have dealt well with invasions in Komani within six hours and we have dealt with this in Port Alfred.”

Swart, a constitutional lawyer by profession, said only 160,000 of the written submissions had been reviewed.

He said 90,000 submissions were against amending the constitution, while 60,000 supported the amendment.

He said there would be catastrophic consequences if the government allowed “general” expropriation, with the land bank at risk of losing R41bn and going bankrupt.

“Commercial banks that have got land and bonds of almost a trillion rands would collapse. So why is the ANC doing this reckless decision?” Swart asked..

“To me it is a reckless shortterm political gain in the run-up to the general elections.”

But, Swart said he believed God would use land invasions to unite South Africans.

The ANC announced in its resolutions that land expropriation would not negatively affect food security, the economy and agricultural development.

Swart warned the farmers to be cautious of fake news that the government had already passed the law to amend the constitution.

“No it is only the motion to consider whether we can allow the constitution to be amendment for land expropriation without compensation.”