Last week, TAU SA deplored the quality of the government’s impact study on expropriation without compensation and reckons it is an excellent example of the lack of knowledge in state departments to compile and report critical information.
“The document that was compiled at the instruction of the Department of Public Works and obtained by Sakeliga through a PAIA application, forms the foundation on which the government based the costs and benefits of the Expropriation Act,” TAU SA said in a recent media release.
“We have a dichotomous concern with the so-called impact study,” says President of TAU SA, Henry Geldenhuys. “In the first instance, the content of the document is of unacceptably poor quality. It looks like the compiler simply copied and pasted a generic answer with no relevance in some places. In the second place, it refers to some organisations approving the act. This is definitely untrue,” Geldenhuys reckons and asks how can the government try to amend an important act which will have such a big impact on the economy, based on this document?
According to Geldenhuys, the document refers to the input of only one agricultural organisation. “Even if it was true, the cautious input of just one agricultural organisation are not representative of all role players in the agricultural value chain, and TAU SA would never accept that,” says Geldenhuys. “This document proves once again that the future of the country bears no weight in the government’s decisions. It is about the implementation of an ideology beneficial to only some people (cadres) while the rest must suffer in misery,” Geldenhuys reiterated.
The organisation for family farmers, Saai welcomed President Ramaphosa’s position that the ANC does not support the EFF’s ideals of nationalising land but believes that the reaction from local business orientated groups and from aboard was not unfounded.
According to Saai Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr Theo de Jager, land-owners and especially farmers do not find the president’s words reassuring.
“South Africa has become used to the ANC’s way of sending up a kite to test the political climate on contentious issues, and then reeling it in and packing it away when the temperature gets too hot. As such, the idea of disarming ordinary South Africans had already been mentioned by the ANC a few years ago, but after heavy outcry it was relegated to a general conversational direction within the ANC. Yet this agenda is now being driven strongly by the Minister of Police.”
De Jager stated that three years ago, at the United Nations, the President denied the occurrence of farm murders.
However, after wide negative reaction to this, he tried to convince the world that his government was earnestly attempting to do something about the alarming number of farm attacks.
“President Ramaphosa’s assurance that the nationalisation of land is not part of the appropriation without compensation platform, is purely the result of ongoing pressure from advocates of the free-market system and not from the ANC’s own conviction.
“For this reason, one cannot reduce pressure on the government to move into a more business and investor friendly direction” De Jager concluded.
