A question of ownership… And why bad ideas never die!
They say that land is a sensitive issue. Is it really? From what we can tell the only time the issue becomes sensitive is when we try to engineer history to one or other party’s absolute benefit. South Africa is a case in point… Without even producing an
The post-Apartheid government immediately set about tackling the land issue. A land claims process was instituted by which dispossessed individuals and communities could lay claim to family or tribal lands, or compensation. News agency Reuters reports that the initial land claims window spanned from 1995 until December 1998, attracting a total of 79,696 claims. Around 74,808 of these claims were settled by the 2005 deadline, which was pushed out to year-end 2011 to process remaining claims. The process hasn’t produced the desired result. Most cases involve compensation rather than change in ownership – with the result the land ownership issue (by race) is not addressed. A report circulated on 10 May 2011 suggests that the 2011 deadline will be missed and that government might re-open the compensation process to allow more ‘dispossessed’ people to apply… But if the ANC-led government hopes to reflect demographics in land ownership, particularly agricultural land, they will end up taking more aggressive steps.
Whose land is it anyway?
The willing buyer / willing seller land reform process also failed to deliver the desired result. In many cases government ended up paying over the odds for farm land, subsequently transferred to communities with little interest in actually working the land. What is left to do? And will South Africa suffer land grabs Zimbabwe-style? For now things appear calm… Before going the land expropriation route government is unveiling another, in our view, ill-thought policy to limit foreign land ownership in South Africa. The idea was tabled a year or two ago and met with resistance from the private sector and land owners. But bad ideas never die in South Africa… They simply get put on the back burner to reappear later. The department of rural developments and land affairs will table a new land ownership bill some time in 2011 at which stage the proposals can be unpacked in more detail. We’ll wait and see what the department delivers. Right now we have bigger fish to fry – the hot topic of nationalisation!
How to argue nationalisation without compensation
Government has repeatedly said it will not nationalise mines. Yet the ruling ANC seems closer than ever to making nationalisation one of its policy objectives. And with almost two thirds in Parliament the ANC is government! If the latest comments from ANC Youth League President Julius Malema and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) are anything to go by, nationalisation could be government policy in a matter of months. Why do we say this?
Yesterday the press was full of reports of Malema’s role in a documentary film called “Mining for Change: A Story of South African Mining.” In the film, which debuted in March this year, Malema insists that the country’s mines must be nationalised to return mineral wealth to the black majority. He expands on the tired accusation that white colonialists stole the wealth! The ANC Youth League president reckons assets should be seized without compensation, whether improved or not: “We are not going to buy what has been stolen from us. It’s like when a person steals my car and I report it to police. They find the car – with new wheels and leather seat and you know – it’s now looking very nice!" The implication is that private companies that have improved their ‘stolen’ land shouldn’t be compensated for the land or said improvements! The documentary includes footage of ex-president Nelson Mandela calling for nationalisation shortly after his release from prison – a call abandoned by the party soon after.
Moments after the Malema movie story broke the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) central committee came out in support of the idea. They fully back the Freedom Charter’s clause on nationalisation. In an article published on Fin24.com the union’s general secretary, Frans Baleni, opined: “The central committee fully supports the Freedom Charter clause on nationalisation as well as the ANC 2010 NGC resolution on the matter!” The relevant section of the Freedom Charter reads: “The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.” Independent observers might say there’s no real threat and that the union is only supporting a study into nationalisation at this early stage… But the idea is taking strong root among supporters of the SACP, Communist Party and ANC youth. And if nothing is done it won’t be long before another group of so-called observers watches as a travesty unfolds before their eyes.
The problem with wealth redistribution, ANC style
We struggle to understand the ruling party because it is made up of such divergent ideologies. The alliance includes a liberation struggle movement, trade unions and the South African Communist Party (SACP). At a glance we’d say the ANC is pro-capitalism – believing in maximising wealth at the individual level (just look at minister salaries and benefits and cadre-deployment at state-run institutions). The trade unions are pro-poor, not opposed to wealth in individual hands, but leaning towards a narrower wage gap between top structures and entry level workers. And the SACP probably believes that land and industrial assets should be in state hands, applied to the benefit of all the country’s citizens. The ANC view on land and private company ownership should be the same as that of the private sector… But it’s not!
If we allow the ANC to go ahead with nationalisation the outcome will be much the same as that achieved by various black economic empowerment transactions. Massive wealth – typically siphoned from existing shareholders – ends up in the hands of a few politically connected entities. Were the ANC to nationalise mines, banks and industry we’d end up with hundreds of Eskoms, SABCs and Transnets – each managed by an executive selected from well-connected ANC cadres – with annual losses funded out of dwindling tax revenues.
Editor’s thoughts: It’s not possible to thoroughly unpack the threat of land expropriation and nationalisation in such a short opinion piece… However, there are enough column inches to convey my disapproval of these strategies as solutions to South Africa’s problems. Our only salvation will come through job creation. And these jobs will only be created when all three spheres of the ruling party push in the same direction – sorry Cosatu – someone has to go! Would you agree that trade union and government job creation objectives clash? Add your comment below, or send it to [email protected]
