President Cyril Ramaphosa will have to choose between attracting investment and growing the economy, or proceeding with a land policy that undermines those goals, according to Dave Steward, chairman of the FW de Klerk Foundation
In an article published on Politicsweb, Steward warns: ‘The crunch will come with the amendment of the property clause early next year: the ANC can either proceed along the road of economic recovery and social cohesion that we saw displayed at the Investment Conference – or it can continue along the road to economic collapse, social crisis and racial exclusion that was so clearly mapped out at the Ad Hoc Committee’s dialogue.
‘President Ramaphosa must decide: he can no longer travel down both roads at the same time.’
Steward said that even as Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on amending Section 25 of the Constitution was considering legislation ‘that will seriously dilute property rights’, President Ramaphosa was hosting the 2nd South African Investment Conference at the Sandton Conference Centre.
‘He succeeded in securing investment pledges of some R363 billion. This is a wonderful achievement for which the President should be warmly congratulated.
‘But how much of this investment will materialise if the ANC persists with its plans to amend the property clause – or if it goes ahead with its ruinous NHI proposal? How will Moody’s react to the proposed constitutional amendment when it gives its next assessment of our credit-worthiness on 22 November?’
Steward added: ‘All this has created a major dilemma for President Ramaphosa: on the one hand he is committed to reviving the economy; on the other he has to implement the resolutions that the ANC adopted at NASREC and in Parliament. Many observers hope that he will somehow manage the EWC constitutional amendment in such a manner that it will have the least possible impact on property rights and on the economy.’
But it was obvious from the Ad Hoc Committee dialogue that ‘ANC and EFF members present were deadly serious about amending the Constitution to redress what they fervently believe was the humiliating dispossession of “their” land during centuries of colonial and apartheid rule. The amendment of the property clause is – and always has been – a core article of faith in the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution ideology.’
There should be ‘no illusions’ that ‘for them this is clearly a black/white struggle’.
‘For non-ANC South Africans, the amendment of section 25 would be another body blow to the constitutional accord that we South Africans negotiated 25 years ago.’