In December 2017 the ANC Conference in Gauteng decided, by a small margin, to adopt Expropriation Without Compensation (EWC). The President subsequently appointed a Panel on Land Reform to advise him on how to effect EWC. This Panel (the Panel) reported in May 2019 (the Report).
Eight years ago, in November 2011, the National Development Plan (NDP ) was published which included land reform as part of a vision for SA in 2030. The NDP set a target of 30% of all commercial farmland as at 1994 to be transferred from white ownership to black ownership by 2030.
The question now arises: Is there a need for EWC? We are a fair way to achieving the NDP target of 30% by 2030. The ANC, until 2017, endorsed the NDP. The target of 30% is do-able, and establishes certainty. EWC will create utter confusion and, if implemented, will debilitate and ultimately destroy our market economy. It is one of the grander delusions of the governing party that markets are capitalist imports and alien to Africa. Markets in livestock and food supplies have existed throughout Africa for millennia. As cities, industry and modern housing become established, it follows that markets in property arise in order to supply this need. We cannot successfully industrialise while we at the same time destroy the markets that support industrialisation.
Notwithstanding the imperative for policy certainty, the Report ignores the 30% NDP target. The majority of the Panel are also only lukewarm supporters of extending ownership to black farming entrants. They prefer the concept of occupancy rights. The Report also believes that all land title and occupancy rights should reflect the demographics of the country. The Report endorses EWC.
The Panel could not, however, achieve unanimity. Two members, Dan Kriek and Nick Serfontein (both commercial farmers) issued a minority report rejecting both the approach and the main thrust of the majority report. It is crucial to note that the minority agrees with the majority that there should be full participation of all South Africans in farming and the agrarian value chain. The minority agrees that SA can only flourish if the talent of every group and member of society is unlocked and utilised.
If the majority have their way, we are headed for an African socialist revolution like Zimbabwe. The prescriptions of the Report are drenched in revolutionary romanticism. They are a recipe for conflict. Whether or not restricted to agricultural land, EWC will not only impact on agriculture, but will have a disastrous effect on investor confidence, the role of the market, and the entire economy.