Land issue smacks of politics

Whichever way the government tries to spin it, land expropriation without compensation won’t fly. Foreign investors aren’t stupid. They know if the government is empowered to seize land without compensation. Investment in SA is too risky, despite government promises that productive land won’t be targeted.

Investors know, however, that at any time such promises can be broken, whereas if a right is protected by the constitution, then it is sacrosanct unless the constitution is changed, which the government says it will do.

So why is President Cyril Ramaphosa, pictured, pressing on with this self-destructive policy? He reluctantly inherited it as a poisoned chalice from Jacob Zuma, which he can’t overturn now without risking accusations from the still powerful Zuma clique of being a tool of white monopoly capital.

The government is terrified that failure to do so could cost it dearly in 2019, losing votes to the EEF. It has nothing to do with helping poor blacks to farm (most of whom aren’t interested) but all to do with politics. David H, Overton

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