Future for South Africans very bleak

Expropriation without compensation

IS this the new South Africa we voted for in the March 17 1992 referendum? Equality for all? Did we slit our own throats? How was it possible that we didn’t realise that what happens in the rest of Africa will naturally happen in South Africa?

Just in our case it would happen slower and be much worse.

The expropriation without compensation of property can totally wreck our economy.

There are unanswered questions relating to this concept, which probably have no sensible answers at all, anyway.

This emotional political outburst of expropriation of land/property without compensation is as illogical as the outburst which took everybody by such surprise, the free tertiary education jump.

Oh, is that how it works? First make the announcement, then add the reality.

Cyril Ramaphosa was considered to be more astute than Jacob Zuma, more realistic.

But Ramaphosa wants a coalition with the Red Ones. What does the future hold for South Africa? It’s bleak, really bleak. No sensible and honourable person will invest in new (or expand existing) businesses when there is doubt about the country’s economic stability, when further “state capture” rears its ugly head, just in a different form.

This is state capture by the connected elite of the state, themselves. No better than what the Guptas and Zuma did.

First there’s the issue of land or property (whatever these expressions constitute).

Farms may be expropriated and given to those who play the political game of “vote for ANC”, this time called “captured by the state”, because it seems title deeds are supposedly going to be held by government.

So the government then becomes the land owner, the landlord, owning more and more land and maybe all the land.

Maybe the farmers are then tenants and they pay a “rental” to the government for the “use” of their own land or maybe they get to work none of it.

Some arrangement will have to be made with the banks regarding the billions owed to banks on farming properties.

Maybe the next step is for the state to expropriate houses and then rent them back to the owners. Interesting concept.

Maybe the government has to take over the banks. That’s just more disaster waiting.

All people become tenants in their own houses.

Tenants are well known to generally not take the same care of the homes they rent, as they would if they owned their houses.

So the general condition of homes, gardens and suburbs declines. People stop building and buying houses, so the market collapses.

Value investments which families have worked hard to acquire and keep get taken off the family asset balance sheet in one big evil swoop, and hard-working, honourable families are left with nothing to show for all their work and their dedication to good saving practice.

Enthusiastic home owners and business owners all become tenants and employees, and they lose the passion for profit, so that the ultra hard work which many people used to put in to their own investments, ceases. Jobs are lost as companies collapse. More homeless people are on the street, through no fault of their own. Nothing in the future is stable. Any form of corruption, fraud, theft and manipulation is possible, so don’t raise your eyebrows in surprise when you see it happening.

Then if you don’t vote for ANC, you probably won’t be able to rent anything, nor be entitled to run a business, nor be paid your pensions, etc.

Our country, which was leading Africa in growth, set to be a First World player, slides deeper than the whole list of African casualties, into sub-third-world status.

As it is, the government cannot be trusted, which is proved by the number of corruption and fraud cases against politicians, and the lack of service delivery and expertise in key government positions. Will the majority of black people benefit? No. Only a handful of well connected people will prosper in unimaginable wealth, just like it is now.

Citizen, Port Elizabeth