{"id":199220,"date":"2018-07-20T06:24:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T04:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/south-african-governments-expropriation-plans-discussed-netherlands\/"},"modified":"2018-07-20T06:24:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T04:24:57","slug":"south-african-governments-expropriation-plans-discussed-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wereldwyd.co.za\/en\/south-african-governments-expropriation-plans-discussed-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"South African government\u2019s expropriation plans discussed in The Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

In June 2018 the foundation South African Monitor<\/em> hosted a colloquium in The Hague, The Netherlands, with the theme \u201cExpropriation without compensation: comparing politics and property rights in Zimbabwe and South Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

The speakers at this event were Dr Admore Tshuma of the University of Kent and Dr Heinrich Matthee of the University of Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

Dr Tshuma specialises in research on poverty, social justice, corporate social responsibility, socio-economic inequalities, re-distributive and reparative justice.\u00a0 As part of his study for his master\u2019s degree, completed in 2004 at City University London, he studied Zimbabwean land reform and reached the conclusion that the programme had been a disaster.<\/p>\n

His personal experience also contributes to his interest in this topic.\u00a0 In the 1930s his grandfather had been one of the first black commercial farmers in the former Rhodesia.\u00a0 The farm he had, still belongs to Dr Tshuma\u2019s family.\u00a0 Even though it had not been targeted by Zimbabwean landgrabbers, beneficiaries of the Mugabe land reform programme who settled on neighbouring farms also destroyed much on it, including infrastructure and game that had been there for generations.<\/p>\n

Dr Tshuma says:\u00a0 \u201cThis has made me angry, knowing how hard my grandparents had worked to get what they had. \u00a0I therefore feel I need to play a part in enlightening Africans about some of the disastrous policies that have kept Africa down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his presentation entitled \u201cLessons from Zimbabwe: A multidisciplinary analysis of the consequences of land expropriations\u201d, he stated outright that expropriation without compensation is a form of theft.\u00a0 It violates the principle that all are equal in the eyes of the law.\u00a0 It contravenes the fundamental right to private ownership which is recognised and guaranteed by most international conventions.<\/p>\n

He outlined the tragic consequences of Pres Mugabe\u2019s land reform in Zimbabwe.\u00a0 Before the launch of this programme, the country had been an exporter of food to many other countries.\u00a0 Approximately a third of the country\u2019s workforce had been in the employ of farmers.\u00a0 The agricultural industry had been self-sufficient and neither required, nor received state subsidies.<\/p>\n

After the Mugabe government had embarked on an accelerated land reform programme, which had happened purely for political reasons, more than 4\u00a0000 farmers were expropriated.\u00a0 In total 28 white farmers and 78 black farm managers and workers were murdered. \u00a0For these victims there has never been justice.\u00a0 In addition, inter alia 25\u00a0000 tractors and 300\u00a0000 hectares of irrigation had been destroyed.\u00a0 More than three million head of cattle had been butchered \u2013 including valuable breeding stock, not to mention the extermination of the country\u2019s wildlife.\u00a0 In the words of Dr Tshuma, the process had been an incontrollable \u201cfree for all\u201d.\u00a0 The main \u201cwinners\u201d had been Mugabe and his cronies, who took ownership of more than 40% of the expropriated farms.\u00a0 Meanwhile the unemployment rate had increased to 95%, with Zimbabwe having the fastest shrinking economy of any country not embroiled in a state of war.<\/p>\n

It caused Dr Tshuma great concern to note that South Africa seems to be embarking on the same process as that of Zimbabwe.\u00a0 The South African ruling party is under pressure at the polls and does not provide solutions for this challenge by displaying strong, positive leadership.\u00a0 Consequently an accelerated land reform process is announced, based on political, rather than economic or social considerations.<\/p>\n

He expressed the hope that the ANC will reconsider this decision in time before, as in the case of Zimbabwe, damage is done that will take decades to be undone.<\/p>\n

He concluded by asking all fellow Africans: \u201cWhat kind of Africa would we like to leave our children?\u201d<\/p>\n

The theme of Dr Heinrich Matthee\u2019s contribution was \u201cWeakening property rights in South Africa: Some implications for international business, civil rights and the political economy\u201d.<\/p>\n

He started by describing the decline of the South African economy since 1994.\u00a0 Where manufacturing had comprised 23% of the gross domestic product in 1994, it had decreased to a mere 11% by 2017.\u00a0 Unemployment is estimated at between 27% and 36%, depending on the definition used, and the credit rating agencies S&P Global and Fitch have downgraded South Africa to junk status.\u00a0 Only Moody\u2019s is keeping it at one point above this status.\u00a0 Issues such as the constantly increasing cost of the civil service, corruption and the calamitous state of state-owned enterprises such as Eskom and South African Airways (which is the direct result of political interference, cadre deployment and tenderpreneurship) are general knowledge.<\/p>\n

Obviously the international response to this state of affairs is negative.\u00a0 The 2016 Business Climate Survey of businesses of the European Union indicates that transformation is regarded to be the most negative factor in this sector.<\/p>\n

The 2017-2018 Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum shows a constant decline in South Africa\u2019s position in categories such as perceived wastefulness of government spending, the presence of organised crime, business costs related to crime and violence, reliability of the police, the burden of government regulation, public trust in politicians and the role of favouritism in decisions of government officials. \u00a0Within this context of weak investor confidence, the new policy of expropriation of land without compensation, and the insecurity related to property rights in general, can have a highly negative impact.<\/p>\n

The business policy of the ANC displays a pattern of ever more state interference and the erosion of private property rights.\u00a0 This can be seen amongst others in the security, mining and energy industries.\u00a0 Land earmarked for reform increasingly remains the property of the one-party dominant state, with only tenancy rights to be re-allocated thereon.\u00a0 Thus the dependence on the ruling party and authorities are reinforced. \u00a0Pressure from interest groups within the state and the ANC cover other sectors and result in a shift from agricultural to urban land reform.<\/p>\n

Dr Matthee also described the events that had taken place in the run-up to the current debate on land reform by means of expropriation without compensation. \u00a0The ANC comprises of several factions and entrenched patronage networks.\u00a0 It had lost control of several key metropolitan councils in 2016 local elections.\u00a0 It is under increasing pressure from the EFF and progressively more service delivery protests occur, often organised by supporter constituencies.\u00a0 Existing checks and balances are too weak to ensure a healthy balance of forces and the securitization of politics is used to prop up presidential rule.\u00a0 Due to the failing economy, more limited state resources are available to placate the ANC\u2019s networks of patronage and other political needs.\u00a0 The vague promise of \u201cradical economic transformation\u201d is therefore now being used to appease the dissatisfied voters, leading up to the national election of 2019.\u00a0 Meanwhile the party\u2019s internal factional competition intensifies.<\/p>\n

Against this background, a deeply divided ANC accepted the expropriation of land without compensation as its official policy during the party\u2019s national congress of December 2017. \u00a0On 27 February 2018, the ANC, EFF and other parties voted by a majority in Parliament in favour of a process involving the amendment of the Constitution to enable expropriation without compensation. \u00a0In May 2018, during a national ANC land summit, it was argued that the amendment of the Constitution may not even be necessary, as Section 25 thereof may already create scope for such action.<\/p>\n

As risk analyst familiar with the European and South African business scene, Dr Matthee warned that significant capital accumulation cannot take place without the security that property rights offer. \u00a0Expropriation without compensation will lead to a stronger ANC grip on the new tenants of land, reinforcing neopatrimonialism and the politics of patronage.\u00a0 Property rights protect the rich but also the poor and the vulnerable middleclass from predatory political elites.<\/p>\n

Uncertainty about the process to be followed and the security of assets will hamper investment and create a ripple effect in the economy, which will cause immeasurable damage.<\/p>\n

With this warning, the colloquium drew to a close, impressing on the audience the need to oppose a process of expropriation without compensation in all possible legal ways.<\/p>\n

Alana Bailey is Deputy CEO of AfriForum responsible for International Relations.\u00a0 This article first appeared in Afrikaans at https:\/\/maroelamedia.co.za\/debat\/meningsvormers\/suid-afrikaanse-regering-se-onteieningsplanne-in-nederland-bespreek\/<\/a>.<\/em>
\nThis article also appeared in English at\u00a0http:\/\/www.politicsweb.co.za\/opinion\/the-ancs-ewc-plans-are-discussed-in-the-netherland<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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