Looters show SA’s EWC future
20 July 2021
The violent disturbances of the past week gave South Africans an inkling of what awaits them if legislation enabling the government to expropriate land and improvements thereon without compensation is passed.
Just as looters swarmed out across towns in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, breaking into shops and warehouses, stealing goods and setting fires, so too will the state’s envisaged powers of dispossession result in citizens being deprived of their possessions without payment, this time under cover of the law.
The systematic disintegration of property rights, which are human rights, will also stoke social conflict and breed lawlessness, by giving moral cover to the notion that a person’s belongings may be taken without their consent and without compensation.
The seemingly interminable process leading to precisely that outcome marched forward again last week: on Friday 16 July, the committee tasked with making a proposal to Parliament on how the Constitution should be amended to allow for expropriation without compensation published a draft Bill for further public submissions. The Bill can be read here (https://static.pmg.org.za/