Expropriation laws will affect growth

There is a saying which, even in this technically advanced and wondrous age of ours, still has resonance: If you want to complain about a farmer, then don’t do it with your mouth full.

Put simply, it emphasises that the people who grow the food are essential to the smooth running of any society. That is why one should pay attention to the thoughts on our pages today of Bennie van Zyl, one of the country’s most influential farmers and head of the farmer organisation, TLU SA.

Van Zyl is one of the main lobbyists on behalf of organised agriculture in South Africa and he has been recognised globally.

When, therefore, he starts to outline the dangerous problems which might be caused by a policy of land expropriation without compensation, all of us – but especially the government – should take it in. As a trained economist, Van Zyl says that, for any economic process to succeed, it is dependent on market forces.

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And, even before Covid struck, the global market had already downgraded South Africa to junk status. Van Zyl notes: “Success in an economy is determined by trust. Investors need to invest and run businesses.”

If the state cannot create a climate in which investors feel their financial commitments are secure, then they will find other places to put their money.

Currently, he points out, the question can be asked whether an investor “in his full positive mind will invest his money in a country where the constitution or legislation stipulates that the state can deprive investors of assets without paying for it”.

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South Africa is only really a marginal country when it comes to agriculture and the fact it makes such a massive contribution to our economy and welfare means it needs to be nurtured. Laws about expropriation will only tend to do the opposite.