EXPROPRIATION
ANC and DA seem to have learned the wrong lesson on land redistribution
The main problem with the "land problem" in SA is that it is rapidly becoming a largely self-created problem. It also reveals the often bizarre fault lines in our fractious society, with the ANC and DA now mirror-images of each other in not facing up to the real challenge. Instead, both have responded emotionally, even irrationally, over the issue of land expropriation without compensation, thus compounding the "problem" and turning it into a crisis where none, in fact, need exist. Our most authoritative constitutional experts, including former Constitutional Court judge Albie Sachs, affirm that as it stands the Constitution does allow for expropriation without compensation in just and equitable circumstances. "It provides for constitutional and judicial control to ensure equitable access and prevent abuse," writes Sachs. "It contains no willing seller, willing buyer principle, the application of which could make expropriation unaffordable." During the parliamentary debate over amen...
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