Expropriation Bill Likened to Situation in Zimbabwe

Civil Society Says No to Land Bill

An article published on the IOL website has drawn attention to civil society’s reactions over the government’s proposed land bill. Fears have been expressed about the possibility of a Zimbabwe-like situation being set in motion.

Opposition parties and non-governmental organizations all joined hands in Centurion on Monday to oppose the controversial land bill at the first of two meetings held by the ad-hoc committee for the protection of property rights. The meeting was attended by representatives of the DA, ACDP, FF Plus, Solidarity and the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU).

The land bill has been designed to counter the slow progress of land reform in South Africa, but the farming sector has dismissed the bill as a government tool to enforce Zimbabwe-style land grabs.

Former foreign affairs minister, Pik Botha attended the conference and when asked about whether South Africa could go down the same road as its neighbouring country, replied, “There is no question about it. There would have been no agreement, no constitution if we (National Party) were told then that this amendment would be implemented”.

He added that, “Property rights, like other fundamental rights, were agreed upon by the National Party and the ANC to be included in the Bill of Rights. It is unconstitutional to tamper with them and will lead to catastrophe”.

Botha argued that the injustices of the past could not be compensated for in the present by the creation of further injustices. Some of the consequences, he said, would be decreased food production and no foreign investment. “Black people, whom this is intended to help, will end up like those in Zimbabwe and pay the highest price”.

Director of research at the University of North West, Professor Andre Duvenhage said that the ANC’s decision at Polokwane suggests a shift from a policy of non-state intervention in the market to a more radical pro-expropriation stance, which will make land reform a less market-driven process.

Duvenhage said that in 1994, about 80% of agricultural land or around 82 million hectares was owned by about 61 000 commercial farmers, but that number has dropped to just 46 000 at present. The government’s goal to have 30% of the land redistributed to blacks by 2015 amounts to about 25.9 million hectares, but at the current rate this goal would only be achieved by 2058. 20.6 million hectares of land must still be transferred.

TAU general manager, Bennie van Zyl said that the government’s “lies and distortions” about the history of land ownership in South Africa bordered on ridiculous and that, “No white commercial farmer has stolen the land he is currently farming on from anyone”.

Van Zyl added that investor confidence was of the utmost importance in South Africa, but the ANC was acting as if this was of no concern to them at all. “How can they expect that anybody will invest with confidence in a country where they could at any time be targeted with such a draconian Expropriation Act?”

He also said that the role of agriculture in the economy has not been sufficiently recognized and that the uncertainty created by this proposed land bill has frightened off investors. “The government has to show the world that what is happening here is not another Zimbabwe and that South Africa will not end up as part of a history of failure in Africa,” he argued.

Confronting the issue of affirmative action, Botha said that the ANC’s obsession with quotas has resulted in the rejection of skilled workers and artisans who would certainly have made a significant contribution in terms of the promotion of skills among black workers, as well as actual empowerment.

Botha went on to say that the ‘boomerang effect’ of the Employment Equity Act and the way in which it was being implemented has seen masses of blacks still not trained or employed. “We acknowledge that the ANC inherited a lot of misery from the past, but at least they also inherited the most advanced infrastructure in Africa,” he said.

There is no doubt that land reform needs to take place in South Africa, but the question remains whether the new land bill is the right way forward, particularly in light of its threat to property rights entrenched in the constitution that set this country free from Apartheid.

The information in this article is courtesy of Barry Bateman (“Land bill ‘can cause Zim-type situation’”, Pretoria News, 29 July 2008).

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