Constitutional provisions for land reform must be respected
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on government to unequivocally reject recent calls for the Constitution to be changed to allow the expropriation of land without compensation. It must declare its support of the constitutionally enshrined assurance of security of tenure and protection of private property rights.
Land reform in South Africa is critical to providing both redress and reconciliation, without which we will not succeed as a nation. Such success is strongly contingent on protecting the economic institution of secure property rights.
Historical evidence shows that dispossession through the 1913 Land Act has led to prolonged economic decline and hardship, especially in the former homelands. Historian G Findley wrote as early as 1940 that 'tribal tenure is a guarantee that the land will never properly be worked' as it excludes individual ownership. Unless land actually belongs to people, there will be no incentives to till it productively.
Expropriation provided the historical foundation for South Africa becoming the most unequal society in the world. The antidote to this inequality is not dispossession, but rather the extension of property rights to all South Africans, especially those living in the former homelands.
Section 25 of the Constitution clearly states that ‘no one may be deprived of property except in terms of law of general application, and no law may permit arbitrary deprivation of property'. The imperative of land reform allows for property to be exchanged on the basis of fair compensation, ‘reflecting an equitable balance between the public interest and the interests of those affected'. It goes on to delineate that the ‘purpose' of exchange and ‘the market value of the property' must be explicitly acknowledged.
These constitutional imperatives are the cornerstone of our democracy. They provide the legal foundation for the most important economic institution of all - secure private property rights. No economy has been successful over the long run where expropriation without compensation has been effected. The only beneficiaries are the unscrupulous political elite.
South Africa is not immune to the global economic slowdown. Calls for expropriation undermine government's efforts to attract investment. Without investment, we will remain unable to achieve the 8% economic growth rate necessary to produce jobs.
President Zuma has identified job creation as a national priority. Any expropriation without heeding the constitutional provisions will destroy economic growth, and therefore jobs.
The ANC youth league's (ANCYL) Ronald Lamola has warned that if whites do not hand land over to blacks, there could be land invasions like those in Zimbabwe. That these comments get given any public airtime in the new South Africa is repugnant.
Lamola's specific reference to the ‘Van Tonders' and ‘Van der Merwe's' having to hand over their land is tantamount to a declaration of ‘war' based on ethnicity. This kind of sentiment has catastrophic consequences for any progress in nation building and will thwart the redress and reconciliation that the DA yearns to achieve.
Any assault on land rights will compromise both national food security and job creation. It is politically expedient to blame the ‘willing-seller, willing-buyer' approach for the shockingly slow pace of land reform, but it is disingenuous at best and demonstrative of weak leadership at worst.
The DA therefore calls on government to demonstrate to the nation its commitment to land reform through more efficient management and less blame shifting.
Statement issued by Athol Trollip MP, DA Shadow Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, June 6 2012
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