The use of the words ‘human rights violations’ in Donald Trump’s executive order is a strange twist of irony, considering that three days later Trump withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council and terminated funding to this important body.
As we celebrate Human Rights Month, it is apt to reflect on the land issue that has been weaponised to bully us into abandoning the historic injustice of land dispossession.
After all, every colonial conquest was achieved by dispossessing indigenous peoples of their land and stripping them of their dignity. We have witnessed the same being done to the people of Palestine since 1947 through the illegal occupation by Israel.
In recent weeks there has been much fanfare about the desirability of the Expropriation Act of 2024, with the US terminating aid, boycotting participation in the G20 and placing South Africa on a watchlist. This is clearly a scapegoat for a deeply veiled political agenda with nefarious intent.
The manner in which our ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool was humiliated and expelled from the US bears credence. We have no doubt that this agenda is bound to fail as it is predicated on a lie that cannot be sustained.
While much has been made of the role of the right-wing apartheid apologists AfriForum and Solidarity, the role of the so-called Paypal Mafia in the US — a group of white male billionaires with deep roots in apartheid South Africa — should not be downplayed.
Perhaps the starting point should be to examine how a country such as the United States of America deals with the question of the expropriation of land. In the United States expropriation is done through a system known as eminent domain. This is strikingly similar to what is provided for in section 25(3) of the Constitution of South Africa, which provides that payment must be just and equitable.
Eminent domain
In the US system, eminent domain refers to the power of the government to take private property and convert it into public use, referred to as “a taking”. A taking may be the actual seizure of property by the US government, or it may be in the form of a regulatory taking, which occurs when the US government restricts a person’s use of their property to the point of it constituting a taking.
Therein lies the duplicity of those who allege that by proclaiming an act of Parliament that has gone through due process of law, South Africa is committing human rights violations and treating certain classes of its citizenry “very badly”.
The use of the words “human rights violations” in the wording of the Donald Trump executive order is a strange twist of irony, considering that merely three days later, Trump withdrew his government from the UN Human Rights Council and terminated funding to this important body.
While we pontificate about the apartheid legacy that the Expropriation Act of 2024 seeks to unwind, it must not elude us that the questioning of this law is nothing more than a distraction from the real issue.
The wording of Trump’s executive order cancelling all aid to South Africa is instructive where it says: “South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.”
This is the real reason the US is taking these atrocious measures against South Africa, a sovereign state. An African country that dared to haul the apartheid Israeli state before the International Court of Justice to be held accountable for its actions in Gaza and the broader Palestine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJdf67PwmS8
History has no blank pages. The world will not forget that the US has used its veto power in the UN Security Council 48 times over the decades to block any attempt to hold Israel accountable for its illegal actions and violations of international law.
The fundamental question is why does the US need to resort to subterfuge to punish South Africa for championing the cause of the oppressed people of Palestine?
South Africa’s Expropriation Act of 2024 fulfils a constitutional imperative to regulate expropriation of property by law of general application. The law further seeks to redress an historical imbalance that had the effect of depriving the vast majority of people of the ownership of land.
It is important to appreciate that this law repeals the apartheid-era Expropriation Act of 1975, which was used to entrench racial inequality and land dispossession through forced removals of black people from their land. This was the law that gave the apartheid state a blank cheque to do very bad things and arbitrarily force people off their land.
The 2024 law seeks to redress the past injustices of racial discrimination and dispossession of black people. This puts paid to another lie that the democratic South Africa has a litany of race-based laws that are intended to discriminate against white people.
Over a period of 15 years, this law has gone through a tedious and robust process, resulting in a number of iterations since the publication of the first draft in 2008.
A nation in transition
As we navigate the challenging landscape of a nation in transition, we are guided by the policy dictates of the Freedom Charter, which proclaims that “The land shall be shared among to those who work it”.
Ours remains a contested terrain, and the promised land for those who bore the brunt of apartheid oppression cannot remain a pipe dream. President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his maiden State of the Nation Address in 2018, referred to the land question as the “original sin, which must be confronted head-on if we are to reach our full potential as a nation”.
The ANC is under no illusion about the importance of land as a catalyst to grow the economy, restore the dignity of millions of South Africans and ensure food security. For the ANC, land redistribution is not limited to farm land, but also extends to urban areas to include land for human settlement and commercial industry.
Any suggestion that the ANC policy posture with regards to land — or any other matter — seeks to alienate any race group is rejected with the contempt it deserves. Ours is to seek a progressive outcome that places the country’s economy on a higher growth path.
Our land reform and land redistribution programme has always been guided by due process and characterised by fairness in its approach. After all, South Africa is a constitutional democracy founded on the bedrock of human rights, the rule of law, and equality. These are sacrosanct values that define our nation.
The issue of land is emotive and carries with it historical scars that can no longer wait to be healed permanently.
The law defines the parameters under which the state may expropriate land without compensation. Sober reading of the law makes it clear that this will neither erode property rights, nor result in unfair compensation.
False narrative
A false narrative that suggests otherwise has been peddled in our public discourse by those with nefarious motives who are wistfully yearning for the return of apartheid, which has been permanently relegated to the rubbish bin of history.
There is no doubt that the Expropriation Act ensures that the rights of all South Africans to land will be strengthened.
It must be appreciated that our commitment to ensuring thriving agro businesses that benefit all citizens and empower black farmers is central to the country’s land redistribution programme.
It is no fallacy that those who have a genuine interest in working with us for mutually beneficial outcomes have understood our vision on land redistribution and have expressed appreciation of the need to move decisively in addressing this challenge. Many nations around the world stand with us and have expressed their unconditional support for our policy direction.
A landless people is a lost nation that has no prospects of lifting itself out of the quagmire of poverty.
We are under no illusion about the intentions of those who seek to bully us into submission with threats of unleashing economic mayhem on us because we dare forge ahead with actions aimed at unwinding the colonial and apartheid legacy to restore the dignity of our people.
These are the authors of neocolonialism and modern-day imperialism steeped in entrenching racial inequality and disdain for solidarity, equality and sustainability. DM
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