CAPE TOWN - South Africa trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) showed its true colours when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the party was in support of changing the Constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.
In a statement, head of the Solidarity Research Institute, Connie Mulder, said he contends that several statements made by the ruling party over the past two days made it clear that the parliamentary process which has seen public hearings into whether Section 25 of the Constitution should be changed to allow for land expropriation without compensation was actually just for the show.
“The initial resolution, as contained in the ANC’s policy documents, is still being pursued with the public hearings just being a show, while the actual decision was being forced through,” Mulder said.
According to Mulder, the timing is also rather interesting, as on Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that expropriation without compensation is an investment risk, while on Wednesday the ANC indicated that this did not matter.
“The message that is being communicated to foreign investors is a matter of impossibility. The message is: ‘Come and invest with us so we can take your property without compensation at a later stage.’
“Combined with the uncertainty that is prevailing in mining about the Mining Charter, new record levels of unemployment and slow economic growth, it is reckless from government to simply steamroller such a detrimental policy,” he said.