Cape Town - Two bills before Parliament mean South Africans could face Zimbabwean-style land grabs, with both agricultural and private property ownership being put at risk, says the SA Institute of Race Relations.
But the claims were poo-pooed by the government, AgriSA and the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas).
A government spokesman accused the institute of trying to “thwart the efforts of the government to correct the wrongs of the past, while AgriSA and Plaas said property rights were constitutionally protected.
Sounding the alarm bells, the institute’s Frans Cronje warned farmers in particular to “start making plans” as Parliament sets out to finalise and adopt the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill and the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill.
Cronje said taken to their extremes, the two bills “could devastate the rural economy on a scale comparable to Britain’s scorched earth policy during the Boer War”.
If the two bills were read in conjunction, the government could expropriate commercial farming operations with zero compensation to owners.
“Together, these two pieces of legislation could spell the end of private property rights in South Africa – not just in agriculture but across the economy,” Cronje said.
Questioning how the state would find money to settle the ball-park figure of about 379 000 new claims at an estimated cost of R179 billion, Cronje said it was suspected the state would use the Promotion of Protection of Investment Bill to expropriate property. READ MORE
Source: www.iol.co.za. #IFAMAFRICA
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