South Africans have until tomorrow to register their opposition to the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill, which poses a grave threat to property rights.
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has warned in a statement that the Bill would ‘alter the Constitution to introduce an explicit requirement that state “custodianship” be introduced for certain land. “Custodianship” is a euphemism. In practical terms it would mean that the state has effectively nationalised property.’
In urging South Africans to join it in opposing the Bill, the IRR said that the ‘amendment, along with the Expropriation Bill, poses a grave threat to property rights in South Africa. Together they will remove key protections against state intrusion and abuse. Moreover, they will further erode the foundation of our already ailing economy, which will only worsen socioeconomic conditions in the country’.
Said IRR project manager Terence Corrigan: ‘The assault on property rights, and the push to nationalise land, does nothing to promote the rectification of historical wrongs or to address poverty and economic exclusion. Rather, it will empower an often dysfunctional and venal state. There is plenty of evidence that South Africans are committed to the idea of owning their property, not to being perpetual tenants of the state. It’s long past time to dispense with the current trajectory and think seriously about land reform in terms that expand and secure property rights, not undermine them.’
Tomorrow is the deadline for comment on the Bill. You can help the IRR resist the nationalisation of land by signing up with the campaign here.