South Africa: Motion to confiscate white land without compensation passed

The false notion that white people “stole the land” in South Africa dominates the discussion and the bloody black history of the Mfecane is being ignored in order to push this fake narrative of disposession, also internationally.

As Zulu Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi stated at the inauguration of the Nkome/Bloedrivier monument on 16 December 1998: “In 1991, even before excuses were at the order of the day, I wanted to apologise to the Afrikaner nation on behalf of the Zulu nation for what happened to Piet Retief and the Voortrekkers and for the actions of my ancestors that caused them pain and suffering.”

He was referring to the treacherous Zulu chief who had promised to sell land to the Voortekkers, the early settlers, but instead had the white negotiators all slaughtered.

But the Prince is the last black senior statesman with integrity, it seems. The ANC, with the help of the EFF, want to focus on an easy scapegoat, in this case a powerless racial minority. In two decades, the ANC’s inefficient policies have done little to lift poverty and stimulate growth.

The amendments that the ANC made to the EFF’s motion to change the Constitution so as to allow for expropriation without compensation, are ominous and raise serious questions about any form of private ownership of any property in South Africa.

Whites woke up to the harsh reality on Tuesday that the ANC’s naked landgrab policy would apply to all land, not just agricultural land – a house in a town or a city, will be affected too.

Amongst other things, it was asserted that the principle of willing buyer/willing seller is a hindrance to land reform and that President Cyril Ramaphosa will use every mechanism at the State’s disposal to carry through his plan of land expropriation without compensation.

There are still hundreds of gullible whites who believe that this process will not be carried through seeing as President Ramaphosa said that the economy and food security may not be compromised in the process.

Pieter Groenewald, the leader of the small minority white party in Parliament, the Freedom Front, warned white South Africans in a media release on Wednesday: “I am telling every person in the country that the ANC and its opposition partners will amend the Constitution in this regard. They have a two thirds majority and once the Constitution has been amended, your property can lawfully be taken away from you without compensation.

“I want to reiterate the fact that this applies to all property. Whether it is a farm or a house in a town or a city. Landowners must realise that this process is analogous to the proverbial example of the frog that is put in a pot of lukewarm water which is then gradually heated until the unsuspecting frog cooks to death.

“Property and private ownership of property form the cornerstone of an economy and serve to build that economy, but the ANC won’t allow it. The time has come for the people that are serious about their property to raise their voices in protest.

“The time has also come for people to set aside their disinterest and apathy when it comes to politics in South Africa for the sake of their own survival. You can’t say that you’re done with the politics in this country, because the politics will never be done with you.”

Whites ended the apartheid system twenty-four years ago with the explicit constitutional guarantee that their land would never be stolen, but because whites are have become a powerless minority, the ANC has been emboldened.

Julius Malema, EFF leader

The motion was brought by Julius Malema, leader of the radical Marxist opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters, and passed overwhelmingly by 241 votes to 83 against.

The only parties who did not support the motion were the Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, Cope and the African Christian Democratic Party.

“The time for reconciliation is over. Now is the time for justice,” Malema was quoted by News24. “We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land.”

TAU SA’s president Louis Meintjes says expropriation without compensation essentially boiled down to theft. Investors will surely see this in the same light, as this was the Zimbabwean clarion cry leading to its inevitable path to destruction, he said.

Under the cloak of “legitimate expropriation” without compensation, the newly elected ANC president promised that privately owned land will be “taken”. In the same breath, specific preconditions are set inter alia that the economy should not suffer, and that food security should not be affected in a negative manner.

Meintjies responded: “This boils down to legitimising theft. Given acknowledgement by government that the productive utilisation of land which has been transferred in terms of the restitution process to beneficiaries, as well as providing aid comprising billions of Rand to people who cannot or don’t want to farm, has failed miserably, this new statement does not bode well for South Africa.

“Where in the world has expropriation without compensation coupled to the waste of agricultural land, resulted in foreign confidence, economic growth and increased food production?” Meintjies added.

He emphasized that the time has come for South Africa to confront its true challenges and identify them as such. Not only are law-abiding citizens in their own country, irrespective of a “non-racial” cornerstone of a so-called “model” constitution, subjected to a wide variety pro-black and anti-Afrikaner laws, but pose a growing population increasing demands to a diminishing tax base.

That process is gathering momentum whilst the country’s junk status, growing rural poverty, collapsing infrastructure, the lowering of academic standards, delivering basic services, rampant crime and a blatant absence to planning is the order of the day.

“No ideology, supported by superficial and populistic promises which are not supportive of sound economic principles, will ensure improvement. If Mr Ramaphosa is set on creating an untenable situation, he should actively create circumstances which will promote famine. His promise to expropriate land without compensation, sows the seed for revolution. Expropriation without compensation is theft.”

Despite being tarred as a country of “colonial oppressors,” millions of Africans from all over the continent have flocked to South Africa to share in the prosperity that white, Western ownership laws have created, including most ironically, Zimbabweans fleeing black rule and the devastation of landgrabs.

It is factually and historically simply incorrect to say that white South Africans “stole land”. Firstly, the current land owners of land in South Africa have not stolen such land, but have lawfully obtained the land that they own. That has been the case in respect of most, if not all, of the land in South Africa for at least a century.

All black tribes were not indigenous to South Africa when whites arrived in 1652 and no black people owned land in the whole of South Africa at the time. Only the Khoi and San people have legitimate land claims as they were the only inhabitants. Bantu speaking tribes moved south into what is South Africa today, much later that the white settlers.

Moreover, high land-ownership figures for whites stated by the likes of Bloomberg and other mainstream media outlets, is patently false, as most agricultural land currently belong to the state in what is known as tribal concessions, a holdover from Apartheid. Tribal chiefs rule over these vast tracts of land, even today, with the blessing of the ANC. But it seems that even that is not enough…