Plan to grab land slammed

‘It will be disastrous for SA’

INTEREST groups opposed to expropriation of land without compensation have warned they will fight the government should private land be expropriated without compensating the owners.

The organisations include AfriForum and the SA Institute of Race Relations (IRR), which have accused the government of planning to confiscate private property.

This comes as the joint parliamentary committee on constitutional review of Section 25 is compiling its report based on the outcomes of public hearings conducted throughout the country, on whether or not the Constitution should be amended to enable expropriation of land without compensation.

The report is to be tabled in Parliament next month, but the institute has vowed to oppose any expropriation of land without compensation, even if the majority of South Africans wanted it.

The institute’s head of campaigns Marius Roodt warned that it would be disastrous for the country’s economic prospects.

“We think expropriation of land without compensation will damage property rights dearly in South Africa, and any country that wants to be prosperous can only do so if they have a secure regime of property rights.

“Just because of the want of something, it does not necessarily mean that the government should do that. If we had a referendum in South Africa we would probably have the death penalty back, and we would probably have no rights for gays.

“In a liberal democracy it is crucial to protect the rights of individuals, sometimes even against the wishes of the majority,” Roodt said.

Earlier this year when the public hearings started, the institute responded to calls for written submissions by filing its own submission with thousands of names from its online campaign.

The institute’s project manager Terence Corrigan said the organisation was launching another similar campaign in a bid to persuade President Cyril Ramaphosa to abandon the plans to expropriate land.

“We are obviously opposed to the amendment and the idea of expropriation without compensation. We were trying to offer South Africans a channel through which they can voice their opposition,” Corrigan said.

The organisation said while it did not have details on the DA’s nuances in its opposition to expropriation without compensation, it was on its side.

Earlier this week, the ANC’s head of the Presidency Zizi Kodwa slammed those who equated the intention to expropriate land with seizure of properties, adding that they were deliberately fermenting fear in the white community.

Kodwa said the party’s stance and the call for land redistribution were being deliberately misrepresented by “voices” who wanted the status quo to remain.

“Expropriation of land without compensation, according to these other voices, means we were going to wholesale take people’s private property and houses and go to Houghton and Camps Bay in Cape Town and tell people to get out.

“It is just to vulgarise the process to address historical injustices,” Kodwa said.

AfriForum and the Transvaal Agricultural Union have indicated that they were already devising ways in which they could jointly oppose expropriation.