DA urges community participation in public hearings on expropriation without compensation
22 October 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned about the low-key arrangements for the public hearings on expropriation without compensation that kicked off in the Northern Cape today. This, after the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature (NCPL) failed to notify political parties of the four-day schedule that runs across four districts, from today until Sunday.
If the DA, as the main opposition party in the Northern Cape, never received formal communication regarding these deliberations on the amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution, then how many members of the public actually received this information before reading about it in the media today.
This certainly brings into question the legitimacy of the public hearings. The DA will be taking this up further with the NCPL and with our counterparts at national level. We also remain concerned that, given the vast distances across the province, not all five districts have been included in the schedule for the hearings, with the John TaoleGaetsewe district, for example, having been completely left out. Is it really fair to make residents living in places like Kuruman, drive to Kimberley or Upington to have their voices heard?
It is critical that all South Africans get to express their views on having ownership of their land and property taken away.
Amending the constitution to terminate property rights, is not something that can simply be bulldozed through by sidelining the inputs of citizens in this very controversial debate. This is a major amendment that, if pushed through, will undoubtedly see South Africa degenerating into another Zimbabwe.
That is why the DA remains committed to opposing expropriation without compensation with everything in our power. It is also why the DA expressly continues to include the protection and the expansion of secure private property rights, to ensure sustainable land reform, as a key policy position.
Property rights are the foundation of development and economic growth while expropriation without compensation is nothing more than state-sanctioned theft. It is also a ploy to divert attention away from the government’s own land reform failures. It has placed our entire country on a knife’s edge that now threatens irreversible set-backs to our hard-won democracy.
This doesn’t mean the DA doesn’t care about fighting for justice through land reform. In fact, quite the opposite.
Section 25 of the Constitution is not an inhibitor to land reform. Where the DA governs, we have been able to change the lives of our people through an accelerated title deeds transfer programme and successful land reform projects. This just goes to show that if the political will exists, land distribution can be dealt with in a fair, transparent and urgent manner that compels the transfer of title deeds to South Africans and that doesn’t encourage violence, kill the South African economy and damage food security.
The DA will be present at and monitor all the public hearings in the province to ensure fairness prevails. We are also calling on all sectors of society to attend the remaining public hearings and to stand up for the protection of property rights.
Issued byAndrew Louw, DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 22 October 2020
