ONKGOPOTSE JJ TABANE: The ANC needs to step in and save the economy from a land grab disaster
'More than 140,000 submissions on the land issue have been received by parliament and I have no doubt that most of them are underlining how crazy the resolution on land is'
EXTRACT
I don't imagine hordes of landless people rushing to submit anything to parliament — after all, the ANC and the EFF have assured them that they will be land-rich in no time. I believe — and I would be happy to be proved wrong — that the EFF and ANC are playing mind games with what is potentially a time bomb. Poverty in South Africa is so bad that people can be excused for grabbing at any straw.
The parliamentary process will not result in a constitutional change that will give the state any more power to expropriate land than was agreed to by Ramaphosa's ANC at Codesa.
The DA may not even need to prepare court papers, if the outcome of the ANC's land summit is anything to go by.
In fact, one battles to see the difference between the DA's position and that of the ruling party.
The EFF can't tell you with a straight face how exactly the expropriation of land without compensation would work. It is time someone pointed out to it that, with 8% of the vote, it will not be able to implement it without the ANC's say-so. Everyone is in such euphoria over the long-overdue airing of the land question that we have suspended our reasoning about how disastrous this policy could be. Let's be frank: the ANC is stringing along the EFF and those who believe it on the land question, lulling them into thinking that it is on the same page. The ANC cannot afford to hand over the land question on a platter to the EFF as an election tool. It has to take some credit for an impending land revolution — except that such a revolution is not near! The ANC is bluffing.This ought to be obvious, but we are a gullible people. More than 140,000 submissions on the land issue have been received by parliament and I have no doubt that most of them are underlining how crazy the resolution on l...
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