What will our real legacy be?

20 March 2018

Tomorrow, 21 March 2018 we will celebrate Human Rights Day. It is a time to celebrate who we are and where we come from.

It is also a day to reflect on the direction in which we are heading to.

At this stage, it is not a pretty picture – proudly brought to you by the ANC.

Parliament recently took a decision to set up a committee to explore amending the constitution to enable expropriation without compensation.

This decision has nothing to do with achieving justice for poor, black South Africans and everything to do with ANC internal politics and EFF populism.

The DA will fight it with every constitutional mechanism available to us.

Successful land reform, as directed by our Constitution, would produce an altogether better country: more productive, more united, more at peace with itself and the world.

But in the past 24 years of ANC rule, only 8-10% of commercial farmland has been redistributed or restored to black people. In urban areas, black people live on the margins, mostly on state-owned land.

Economic growth requires a thriving market economy in which property rights are protected. Neither locals nor foreigners, rich nor poor, black nor white will want to invest in SA if property rights are not secure. Banks will be reluctant to lend money with property as collateral.

The impact on agricultural production could be disastrous, putting food and farmworker job security at risk, as land productivity falls.

The fact is, the DA is the party fighting hardest to undo the legacy of apartheid sustainably and within the law, and we have the proudest track record of actually doing so. And we will keep fighting against populists and autocrats who want to concentrate power and ownership in the state. The Constitution was specifically written to protect all South Africans, to help this country thrive.

That is and always will be the legacy of the DA. It is time for Total Change and to give our communities the future they deserve

Issued by Jacqueline Theologo, DA Whip, North West Provincial Legislature, 20 March 2018