On 4 December 2018, the National Assembly voted in favour of adopting a report by the Constitutional Review Committee which advises amendments to section 25 of the Constitution. These amendments are designed to allow expropriation of land and other forms of property without compensation.
The vote was completed with 209 members of Parliament voting in favour and 91 against. This is to be expected, as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the resident revolutionary party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have come out to support amending the Constitution and seize private property on a mass scale. Smaller parties have joined them, leaving a minority of political parties to form a bulwark against this dire policy.
What does this mean?
This vote doesn’t mean we are facing expropriation without compensation immediately. What it does mean is that a policy that will destroy private property rights drifts ever closer to fruition.
This isn’t the most important vote, but it is a battle that should have been won if those who care about freedom and reason are to win out and keep this country from falling off the precipice (if it hasn’t already).
What this vote means is that we are one step closer to expropriation without compensation, and everything that entails.
What next?
The fight against expropriation without compensation will end (legally, at least) when the National Assembly has its final vote to amend section 25 of the Constitution, allowing the government to seize private property without giving compensation or room to negotiate to the victims.
Politicians from the ANC and EFF, as well as vicious public socialists have made it clear that they do not wish to engage in a discussion on rational land reform, and would rather fight a war. War is never something one should desire, however, and we can hope that there are enough reasonable and mature people in the two trouble-making parties that will work to stop a conflict from escalating.
In the meanwhile, fear wrought from the impending policy, behaviour by the EFF and ANC and the continual decline of the country due to mismanagement and the collapse of essential infrastructure will continue to place South Africa down a death spiral.
Until then, we need to keep opposing expropriation and all manner of morally and intellectually bankrupt ideologies. When we stop, we might as well leave the country, which isn’t a bad idea if the amount of people doing it is anything to go by.
Why does it matter?
But why does this vote matter? Why does expropriation without compensation matter? Why does opposing it matter? Even if you know why, it is always important to refresh your memory – so you know what is at stake.
If section 25 is amended, private property and our right to it becomes forfeit. God-given or not, this is a right essential to civilisation and our life as free and sovereign humans. A man’s house is his castle, but it is more than that. Populists in the EFF and among the Afro-socialists have tricked many South Africans into thinking that expropriation is how they will get their own land and property – but that cannot be further than the truth.
If expropriation happens, every South African will lose the essence of what makes private property valuable. Its safety. Its sovereignty. If the government can take property from someone, they can take it from anyone. And if they can take it, legally, then it isn’t really yours.
If this passes, then private property rights will be forfeit, and with it, South African civilisation and its citizens ability to be free and functioning human beings. Without property, humans are cattle for the ruling class.
For the more utilitarian among us, property rights are more than just an a priori moral principle – they are the bedrock of a functioning economy. No economy has ever functioned effectively without private property and the defence of people’s right to have it. Not for long, anyway. A short look at recent history and contemporary world news shows just that. Venezuela and Zimbabwe today. Russia, Cambodia, Cuba and many others of yesteryear.
We need private property, and people know this in their hearts. That is why so many people of all races are disinvesting from South Africa and leaving. They know that there is no future for a country that has no freedom. And get this into your head as firmly as possible:
Without property, there is no freedom.
South Africans know this, at least. Surveys show that South Africans don’t want expropriation. They just want safety and prosperity. These are two things that our government and the revolutionaries in our midst can’t and won’t give them. For they do not care about the truly important things. They only care about their bankrupt ideologies that have already killed so many. They aren’t going to be convinced by democracy or the actual desires of the populace. They want blood, and affirmation for their blatantly wrong ideologies.
Fighting expropriation matters because it is more than just opposition to a bad policy. It is a defence of freedom and reason. We cannot let such blatantly wrong and evil ideas win out against reason, discourse and a true desire to make South Africa a better place.
What this vote means is that South Africa is ever closer to the precipice. If you haven’t done something yet, now is the time.
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Read more
- Expropriation Without Compensation is the Last Straw
- Expropriation: From Constitutional Development to Constitutional Deterioration
- Apartheid Was a Crime Against Humanity – But So Is Communism and Expropriation
- The End Is Nigh: Parliament Adopts Expropriation Without Compensation
- The Expropriation Bill
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