The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) says it will be placing pressure on organised business and agriculture to speak up against the government on property rights, and stop ‘custodial’ takings becoming law.
The IRR warned in a press statement yesterday that the precedent set in the court case involving AgriSA, in which the concept of ‘just and equitable compensation’ was deemed not to apply to custodial takings, would be used by the state to justify its use of ‘custodial’ powers of possession to go after more than just land.
The IRR pointed out that, in the absence of fixed-capital-driven growth, the ruling alliance would have to rely on going after all assets, not just land, in order to sustain its cadre deployment networks.
The Institute said its analysts had been warning of the risk posed by custodial takings since 2014. The motivation for such takings was not redress of historical injustices but to grab the assets of hard-working South Africans.
IRR CEO Dr Frans Cronje said that land was being used as a red herring by the ANC, as its goal was the nationalisation of all assets in the country.
Said Cronje: ‘Firstly the party’s objective in amending the Constitution is not land reform in the main but rather the nationalisation of the financial services and private healthcare sectors. The ANC needs this to feed its cadre deployment networks, given their dependency on flagging tax revenues. Should it fail to pivot the financing of those networks onto the pools of capital that lie in pension funds and banks, the internal unity of the party will splinter further. Land is simply the thin end of the wedge to set the precedents that will allow such nationalisation.
‘Secondly, custodianship has long been the objective of the ANC’s expropriation efforts. We have warned in writing since 2014 that the ANC would seek to amend the Constitution not just to introduce expropriation without compensation but also the even more dangerous policy of custodial takings. Mr Ramaphosa’s recent assurances to the contrary presented a case study in the well-worn strategy of ‘dexterity of tact but firmness of principle’ that has characterised the introduction of all the ANC’s more insidious policies, and were set to string South Africans along.’
The IRR said it would be writing to the following organisations to clarify their position on custodial takings, and to ask what they would be doing to protect their clients’ interests:
• Business Unity South Africa (BUSA)
• Banking Association South Africa (BASA)
• Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA)
• Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA)
• Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (AgBiz)
• Agri South Africa (AgriSA)
• The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS)
[Image: Steve Buissinne from Pixabay]