Land reform, including land restitution, is a justice issue as millions of South Africans remain disempowered as they do not own land – both urban and rural – in their own right. This is the legacy of centuries of deliberate government action to halt the accumulation and transfer of wealth for the majority of South Africans.
Yesterday’s vote by the ANC, NFP and EFF coalition in the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) to adopt a recommendation that section 25 of the Constitution be amended to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation is nothing more than a populist move to rig the economy in favour of the politically connected. South Africans will now be at the behest of powerful politicians, choosing who can have access to land and who cannot. Such power residing in the hands of a few politicians has resulted in mass injustices in countries such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
This decision to meddle with the Constitution proves that the ANC has outsourced national policy to a fringe socialist party. This agreement is populist proof that a vote for the ANC is a vote for EFF and vice versa. This decision will increase political uncertainty, decrease investor confidence and further polarise the country.
The Constitution has never been a hurdle to land reform in democratic South Africa. ANC lack of political will, under-budgeting and endemic corruption is the impediment to justice in the country.
Even after oral presentations by over 50 organisations in Parliament, over half a million written submissions and 34 public hearings across the country, this nine-month farce has actually been about cloaking ANC failure to implement meaningful land reform. After the ANC voted against this barely a year ago, they have now done a deal with the EFF, adopting word for word the EFF’s proposal.
The DA opposed the amendment of the Constitution, in favour of real and meaningful land reform. The fact that DA-led governments have succeeded in more than 60% of land reform projects against a shocking national average of barely 10% shows what is possible within the law. We fundamentally believe that South Africans ought to own land and property in their own right, and not be forever dependent on government.
While the land issue is about justice and cannot go unaddressed, empty ANC and EFF promises to redress the original sin cannot be used as camouflage for failed ANC governance. It is an insult to the conscience of the people of South Africa.
We need a land policy that aides and empowers black South Africans with adequate funding of land reform programmes, an honest commitment from the ANC government and to exhaust other mechanisms and legislative interventions. Amending the Constitution will not achieve this.
Section 25 is not simply a constitutional defence of property rights. It is the mechanism through which those left behind can be economically empowered through ownership of property and land in their own right. Yesterday’s decision is an assault on such economic empowerment.
South Africa remains a country of economic ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ and ANC-EFF coalition disguised as righteousness is a betrayal of black South African living outside the economy. The DA will continue to build One South Africa For All – that upholds the Constitution and the rights of citizens.