‘Your time is up, white people’: South African parliament targets next March for land expropriation By Rick Moran
The South African parliament approved a motion that would set up an ad-hoc committee to recommend procedures on how land expropriation without compensation would work. Earlier, the parliament had approved the constitutional changes that would give the government power to take land from white farmers without paying for it.
The motion was adopted with 183 votes in favour and 77 against. There were no abstentions.
Opposition parties had objected vehemently, with the Freedom Front Plus’s Anton Alberts reiterating the party’s threat that land expropriation would lead to instability.
“When the blood flows it will be on your hands,” Alberts said in the direction of the ANC benches.
The Congress of the People’s Deirdre Carter urged voters to go to the polls to “stop the ANC, stop the EFF, the only way you can do it”.
Themba Godi, from the African People’s Convention, backed the ANC and Economic Freedom Fighters’ support for the motion and an amendment, saying those who opposed land reform were, in fact, supporting the oppression of African people.
“Land must be nationalised and socialised for the benefit of the people, especially the working class and women …. those who oppose want the perpetuation of wrongs of past.”
Tell me if you think this expropriation scheme is going to go peacefully:
But there were heated scenes in the House when politicians clashed over the plans.
According to local reports, Economic Freedom Fighters MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi argued land grabs must go ahead as she declared: “Your time is up, white people”.
This came as the IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the plans undermine South Africa’s position as a democratic state.
According to the Daily Maverick, he said: “To achieve real and effective land reform is (possible) under the existing Constitution, not your (ANC) populist agenda.
“You should be ashamed of yourself.”
However, the ruling ANC’s Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu dismissed the controversy, saying land reforms are “the right thing to do”.
It is believed that when South Africa’s Constitution is amended, it could be done by inserting into Section 25 the phrase: “Zero compensation may be regarded as just and equitable”.
Up is down, black is white, and taking someone’s land without compensation is “just and equitable.” Orwell would be proud.
More of the same came last October when the ANC solumnly promised to protect “property rights”:
The South African ruling party’s plans on land reform, which include expropriating land without compensation in certain circumstances, will ensure that property rights are safeguarded, its spokesman on the issue said.
“This is not going to diminish or wipe out property rights,” Ronald Lamola, a member of the African National Congress’s National Executive Committee, said on Bloomberg TV Wednesday. “We’ve been very clear that we don’t want to” hurt confidence or collapse the economy, he said.
The “certain circumstances” Bloomberg mentions are just about anything the ANC says they will be. And it is laughable that property rights mean anything when government can seize land from anyone and not pay for it.
The ANC can couch their land grab any way they wish, it still comes out the same; an invitation to black South Africans to kill what the government won’t give them.
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