In a speech available on the DA’s website, the party’s leader Mmusi Maimane expressed his disapproval of the outcome of the recent vote in the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC).
A coalition of the ANC, EFF, and NFP led to the committee voting in favour of recommending that section 25 of the Constitution should be changed to allow for land expropriation without compensation.
Maimane said the outcome of the vote was proof that “a vote for the ANC [was] a vote for the EFF”, calling it a “populist move to rig the economy in favour of the politically connected”.
He also said that this was an example of “power residing in the hands of a few politicians” which had led to “mass injustices” in places such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
READ MORE: Committee adopts report to allow for land expropriation without compensation
The DA leader said the problem of land restitution in South Africa was “a justice issue” as not owning land meant that “millions of South Africans [remained] disempowered”.
He added that this was as a result of “centuries of deliberate government action to halt the accumulation and transfer of wealth for the majority of South Africans”.
But the way the issue has been handled, culminating in what appears to be the first official step towards the constitution being changed, means that South Africans “will now be at the behest of powerful politicians, choosing who can have access to land and who cannot”, according to Maimane.
Maimane then expressed his belief that “the ANC has outsourced national policy to a fringe socialist party. This agreement is populist proof that a vote for the ANC is a vote for EFF and vice versa. This decision will increase political uncertainty, decrease investor confidence, and further polarise the country”.
Rather than the constitution, it was the “ANC lack of political will, under-budgeting, and endemic corruption” that had been a hurdle to land reform, Maimane said.
READ MORE: Concourt still has final say on land, expropriation – expert
He continued to call the oral presentations held in parliament as well as the “over half a million” written submissions and 34 public hearings on whether or not the constitution should be changed a “nine-month farce [which] has actually been about cloaking ANC failure to implement meaningful land reform”.
Maimane brought up the fact that the ANC voted against changing the constitution “barely a year ago” but had “now done a deal with the EFF, adopting word for word the EFF’s proposal”.
The DA leader then explained the party’s view that individual property rights were the key to successful land reform, calling “yesterday’s decision” an “assault” on “economic empowerment”.
“South Africa remains a country of economic ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ and [the] ANC-EFF coalition disguised as righteousness is a betrayal of black South Africans living outside the economy,” Maimane concluded.
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)
