AfriBusiness will approach the Constitutional Court if the Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill is passed by Parliament.

The business rights watch-dog said in Centurion today that it had submitted a proposal against the planned Bill after having had obtained a detailed legal opinion.

Charles Castle, Manager at AfriBusiness, is of the opinion that the Bill will not pass a constitutional test in its current format.

“The Bill will not only result in economic chaos, but will also compromise food security. The property rights of all property owners – regardless of race – will be affected in terms of the ceiling categories that Gugile Nkwinti, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, may determine.”

According to Castle, the Bill has many shortcomings and the interpretation thereof may therefore open the door to gross injustices. “The recent statements by politicians indicate that there no longer exist any dispute on expropriation. It will happen, and the question now is rather when and whether or not it will include compensation.”

Adv. Johan Hamman, specialist and expert on property law, says that the regulations of the Bill are draconic and will place an enormous burden and limitations on property owners. In terms of the Bill, once it is voted into law, owners will be obliged to disclose certain information to the Minister, for example their race, to whom the property belongs and the size of the property, as well as additional information pertaining to servitudes and mining rights.

Hamman explains that the Bill will in future make it impossible for white people to buy property, extend ownership or jointly own it with foreigners. Moreover, there are regulations that discriminate against South Africans working abroad. There are also radical proposals in terms of land ceilings to be determined later, as well as prescriptions on who has the first right to procure land that becomes available.

Dawie Roodt, Economist of the Efficient Group, thinks that the ANC is ideologically confused and many inconsistent messages about land do the rounds. “The communist ideology has been hijacked for personal interests and it seems as if we are on the road to a dictatorship.”

Roodt says that land owners will have to very quickly start thinking differently about their property and farms. The traditional approach is obsolete and farms will in future no longer be owned by individuals, but will rather be in company-owned.

He proposes that farmers, or land owners, should think about how they will protect themselves in future. “It is of the utmost importance that land owners have certain skills, decrease their risks and diversify their portfolios, also abroad. Farmers who are successful at farming in South Africa will be able to succeed anywhere else in the world. It is important to think and adapt to also be successful in future.”

Armand Greyling, Law and Policy Analyst at AfriBusiness, says that four steps are proposed to ensure that land owners have a more stable right to private property. These include:

1. Being familiar with proposed legislation, policies and amendments to legislation, and ensuring that you comment where and when necessary – taking part in the democratic processes of the Republic of South Africa;
2. Diversifying your true rights to your property within the scope of current legislation, and obtaining legal and financial advice in this regard;
3. Becoming part of your local community structures such as AfriBusiness or similar organisations – a joint, united front is much stronger than individual attempts; and
4. Supporting and taking part in action undertaken by organisations that test the constitutionality of unfair and discriminating Bills such as the current one.

AfriBusiness encourages the public to send comments to the Minister as soon as possible to ralhbill@drdlr.gov.za or sello.ramasala@drdlr.gov.za, or to hand deliver these to 184 Jeff Masemola Street, Pretoria. The public participation process closes on 16 April 2017. For convenience, AfriBusiness has prepared a letter to which the public can simply add their name and send it to the Minister. The letter and accompanying commentary is available on AfriBusiness’s website at http://www.afribusiness.co.za/ or by following the direct link to http://AfriBusiness.co.za/does-white-landowners-also-have-rights/.

They can also support the #StopNkwinti campaign by sending an SMS with “Land” to 32277 to help fight the illegal expropriation of land. Each SMS costs R1.