Farmers’ organisation Agri SA has warned that tampering with property rights could lead to ‘high levels of divestment in the economy, food inflation and regional food insecurity’.
The statement followed Agri SA’s participation in this week’s parliamentary committee ‘dialogue’ on amending the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation.
Agri SA said it had conveyed to the committee its view that Section 25 ‘is not an impediment to land reform (and that) amending the property clause will not result in sustainable land reform’; that ‘land reform failure stems from implementation failures, corruption, lack of political will and inadequate funding’; and that amending Section 25 ‘may hold serious economic consequences for the country’.
Annelize Crosby, head of Agri SA’s centre of excellence on land ‘appealed to the committee to take proper cognisance of the potential catastrophic economic consequences of an amendment’.
Agri SA president Dan Kriek said: ‘One can safely state that the caveats set by the ANC policy conference [that land reform would be conducted in a manner that would not harm the economy, or threaten food security in South Africa], cannot hold true anymore.
‘The ANC Government can no longer claim these caveats to be true and applicable. We may see high levels of divestment in the economy, food inflation and regional food insecurity if we water down property rights.’
Agri SA noted of this week’s meeting at Parliament that ‘a detailed agenda was not provided and there were lengthy debates on the purpose of the meeting’.
The organisation said that while ‘some members of Parliament held the view that the committee had a clear mandate to focus only on the amendment of Section 25, Agri SA maintained that its only mandate was to reject any amendment to Section 25’.