Land expropriation without compensation a desperate attempt to cover ANC's failures

18 October 2018

In September 2018, we celebrated the diversity of our heritage. There is however a dark cloud hanging over these commemorations – a cloud called “Land Expropriation without Compensation”.

The question the failing ANC needs to ask themselves is what heritage will they be leaving behind after the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution? Will it be a heritage of decimation of the value of the Rand as is evident in Zimbabwe?  Or will it be a heritage of hyperinflation as seen in Venezuela, where inflation is more than 30 000%?

Both Venezuela and Zimbabwe live to tell of their costly, failed “land expropriation without compensation” excursions. Looking at these two collapsed economies, we are confronted with this question: Is this our dream for South Africa?

Honourable Speaker, although it is a well-known fact that black South Africans have been denied ownership of land in the past, expropriation without compensation will not effectively redress this issue.

The problem is not Section 25 of the Constitution. Expropriation without compensation is a way to divert attention away from the failures of the ANC government.

As former President Kgalema Motlanthe’s high-level report points out, and I quote, “the need to pay compensation has not been the most serious constraint on land reform in South Africa – other constraints, including corruption by officials, the diversion of the land reform budget to elites, lack of political will, and lack of training and capacity have proved more serious stumbling blocks to land reform”.

It is our contention that ownership of land will not change hands from white farmers to previously disadvantaged black farmers. Rather, if the state works on the same model by which it has redistributed land so far, land would find itself in state ownership, and the new farmers on the land would simply rent it, not own it. As the DA we want people to own their land.

The core issue facing upcoming black farmers currently is their lack of access to capital. If they owned their land, they would be able to put it up as collateral for a loan to fund a harvest, but they merely rent the land they are staying on, and therefore has no access to collateral for loans. This has been forwarded as the main reason for the high failure rate among new black farmers.

The process to lawfully implement expropriation without compensation will only prolong the wait for the landless in this country.

We therefore propose that, instead of desperately bowing to populist rhetoric in an attempt to win votes, the failing ANC should address the weakness in implementing the provisions already made in the Constitution.

Honourable Speaker, when debating the issues pertaining to land reform, we need to consider the objective truth. The question we should ask is how attainment of land will bring relief to the most pressing social issues we are faced with?

All credible sources of research have indicated that, contrary to popular belief, issues of land are not the main concern of the average South African.

The reality is that the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, along with crime and corruption are the biggest challenges affecting most South Africans in some or other way.

It is extremely discouraging that, due to lack of adequate support by the failing ANC government, 20% of commercial farmland that has been transferred to black farmers since 1994, has not made significant contribution to national food security. The failing ANC needs to fix its glaring shortcomings in capacitating black farmers, instead of disrupting the productive commercial farming sector to further its narrow political agenda.

These statistics prove that, despite the billions of Rands and legal tools at their disposal, the ANC has failed dismally in transforming the agricultural sector – an objective truth that does not suit a populist narrative about "giving back the land". It begs the question as to how the failing ANC will be able to expropriate land and successfully redistribute it among the poor.

We further need to explore the fact that 66% of South Africa is urbanised, resulting in overcrowded informal settlements. Statistics reveal that 59% of all land claims have been filed in urban areas and that 84% of illegal land invasions took place in urban areas. 93% of those who filed land claims stated that they prefer money over land. Against this backdrop, we need to ask how land expropriation without compensation will effectively meet the needs of the people?

The DA believes it is possible to achieve the aims of land reform and to do so in a way that truly empowers black people and strengthens the economy. One of the ways in which this can be achieved is through partnerships with community organisations, an initiative that has enabled the DA to accelerate the pace of land reform in the Western Cape.

This approach has led to the success of 62% of all land reform farms in the Western Cape. This is in stark contrast to the 90% failure rate of land reform programmes in the rest of the country.

The time has come for the failing ANC to deal with the real constraints facing land reform in the country, instead of attempting to deflect attention away from their land reform failures.

Issued by Jacqueline Theologo, DA North West Chief Whip, 18 October 2018