Afriforum’s anti-EWC campaign bearing fruit

The aftermath of the US government’s warning to South Africa on expropriation without compensation (EWC) has emboldened lobby groups who have been campaigning against the policy being signed into law.

At the forefront of gathering international calls against the policy was South African minority rights organisation Afriforum, whose CEO Ernst Roets was still on a massive media tour in the States, having appeared on such conservative platforms as Fox News and Voice of America, where his message was being echoed by sympathisers in the country who agreed that not only was land expropriation a dangerous move for the economy, but it infringed on fundamental human rights.

His right-hand man in the campaign, Kallie Kriel said the organisation was planning on expanding its reach to all of the continents and would even be targeting the country’s Brics partners (Brazil India China South Africa).

Last week, United States’ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was sharply critical of the South African government’s push towards legalising the expropriation of land without compensation. Speaking during a visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during his first tour to various African countries, Pompeo warned against the perils of centralist and socialist policies. He pointed to ‘failed socialist experiments’ on land reform in other African nations and said EWC would be disastrous for South Africa’s economy and its people.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) came down hard on the US chief diplomat, with both organisations calling Pompeo and the US government ‘imperialist’ and accusing Pompeo of furthering an agenda to threaten the sovereignty of African nations. But Pompeo’s stamp of approval was just the beginning for Afriforum’s plans this year.

Our campaign will be much broader and we are going to every continent in various countries and the US was just our first visit and I think it is necessary that government realises that there is widespread fear of what the impact that expropriation will have on the economy and especially in the situation we are in at the moment with the economy I think it will be a disastrous policy,” said Kriel.

“ I myself do not have land and the majority of Afriforum members do not have land, but we know that this will lead to hyper-inflation, unemployment, and we will have a skills shortage and a food shortage just like in Zimbabwe.”

Gaining momentum on the domestic front, controversial think tank the Institute for Race Relations (IRR) have also led a steady campaign targeting financial institutions and businesses in a bid to have them publicly denounce EWC.

IRR Campaigns Manager Hermanus Pretorius said Pompeo’s utterances last week should be a watershed moment in the national discussion, and a wake-up call to the South African government.

“I think it is very important that when a nation with the economic heft and commercial power and influence and interests like the US makes such a clear statement on something as fundamental as property rights here in South Africa under this constitutional dispensation. I think it is definitely something that should be taken very seriously,” said Pretorius .

“The IRR has been engaging with all manner of people locally and on the international front from the far east to the Americas. We have been presenting the facts and the realities and the consequences that are likely to be in the event that property rights are being destroyed and undermined.”

At stake, said Pretorius were the bilateral economic interests shared by the US and South Africa, including the US African Growth and Opportunity Act, which gives trade opportunities to Sub Saharan countries under certain conditions, including that property rights and the rule of law were respected. He added that around 7% of South Africa’s exports were to the USA.

The public participation process was still under way with parliament taking written and oral presentations on the policy.

Last year the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land and Agriculture released its report in may last year supporting expropriation without compensation under certain circumstances.

Last month Parliament announced it had extended the deadline for public comment to the 29th of February.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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