South African Government Moves To Grab Land From White Farmers
South Africa’s radical left-wing government moves to expropriate white farmers’ land without compensation.
Recently, the National Assembly passed a motion to create an ad hoc committee to draft the amendment to Section 25 of the constitution which will allow expropriation without compensation.
In the debate of the motion, ANC, EFF and NFP voted for the motion, while the DA, IFP, FF Plus and ACDP voted against.
African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Pemmy Majodina presented the motion which stated that the fifth parliament had already adopted a report by the constitutional review committee (CRC) recommending an amendment to the Constitution.
Majodina explained the intent to the amendment as follows:
“Make explicit that which is implicit in the Constitution, with regards to expropriation of land without compensation, as a legitimate option for land reform, so as to address the historic wrongs caused by the arbitrary dispossession of land, and in so doing ensure equitable access to land and further empower the majority of South Africans to be productive participants in ownership, food security and agricultural reform programs”.
Majodina also explained that an ad hoc committee was established by the Fifth Parliament, however, it was dissolved before it could complete its task.
“We must complete this. We are hungry, we want our land back,” Majodina said.
DA Chief John Steenhuisen cautioned that a constitutional amendment was comparable to applying plaster on a 20-year failed track-record of land reform and restitution.
“What this motion is… is the greatest hoax perpetuated on the people of South Africa,” said Steenhuisen. “This plaster that you are trying to use is a smokescreen of the government failures of the last two decades.”
IFP MP Elphas Buthelezi shared the same sentiment:
“The Constitution has not failed our people; it is the policies of this (ANC) government that failed our people.”
EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi said an amendment to section 25 would have historical implications and trigger the painful past of the country’s black population.
She pledged that the EFF would prevent ANC from introducing unsubstantiated al amendments and ensure that the land would be returned to its “rightful owners, which is the black people”.
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