Media release
2 June 2017
Release immediate
23 years post-apartheid, South Africa needs to be radical about land reform
FMF’s Khaya Lam provides blueprint
Radical economic transformation (RET) means exactly that – a radically different approach to policy. President Zuma puts land reform high on the RET agenda, yet government land policies maintain apartheid era thinking and prevent the real social and radical change required in urban and rural land ownership. For over 40 years the Free Market Foundation (FMF) has championed the cause of converting the various forms of Apartheid title found in the townships to full, unambiguous ownership for the current tenants. In Ngwathe, Sarah Baartman municipalities and others the FMF has succeeded in bringing about radical change in the lives of thousands of now-property owners. On May 24, the Atlas Network awarded its prestigious Africa Liberty Award to the FMF in recognition of the FMF’s role in facilitating radical transformation in the economic prospects of South Africa’s poorest citizens and bringing about social transformation by restoring human dignity through home ownership.
The 1913 Natives Land Act prohibited black South Africans from owning land in so-called ‘white areas’ – restricting the question of land ownership entirely to the ethnic authorities in the reserves, later known as homelands. Black people in the cities thus lived as tenants on property owned by the local municipality, which developed into what we know today as ‘townships’. Not much has changed.
According to FMF director Jasson Urbach, “The Khaya Lam Project is a living example of a fundamental truth expressed by *Sir John Templeton who said that property rights are essential for human rights.” Urbach continued, “This project is about unlocking the freedom that has been denied to black South Africans for over a century.”
Government’s Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP) homes scheme has been a success in delivering roofs over citizens’ heads. However the unwillingness to give the urban poor property rights still remains in that the “owners” of RDP homes are bound by ‘pre-emptive clauses’ that prohibit them from selling their property for eight years. At the end of this period owners can only sell the RDP home back to government. This is not real ownership – it is a continuation of paternalistic Apartheid thinking.
Restitution of land expropriated during the Apartheid era must be speeded up and finality achieved. Free market economist Murray Rothbard wrote in The Ethics of Liberty that, where property has been acquired illegitimately such as through expropriation without the consent of the owner, that property must be returned to the owner. Government’s policy of redistribution – rather than restitution – of privately owned land amounts to the same kind of land theft perpetrated by the Apartheid regime.
The post-Apartheid land restitution process has been neglected and abused, with government now resorting to emotional blackmail to persuade people into taking back the land, rather than choose compensation, as is the right of any property owner. Government’s goal should be the restoration of property rights – not forcing modern South Africans to become farmers.
Also, the apartheid rural land law must be finally abolished. The Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act is a relic from the past and has meant that small-scale and subsistence farmers cannot easily acquire land. The Act must be repealed.
These measures would deliver radical economic transformation in land reform and in the lives of millions of citizens.
* Sir John Templeton (1912–2008) was a British investor, philanthropist, and classical liberal who believed in free enterprise, individual freedom, and property rights.
Ends
Note to the Editor
This media release is 6 in a series of 10 in which the Free Market Foundation (FMF) will provide alternatives to the various policy discussion planks of the African National Congress’ 2017 National Policy Conference.
Previous media releases in this series:
1. ANC Conference must adopt real radical economic transformation – not more of the same paternal statism
2. ANC Conference must reject ICT White Paper and Hate Speech Bill for South Africa to drop Apartheidesque communications policy
3. Radical economic transformation means South Africans keep and control their own money
4a. For radical economic transformation in energy, adopt the 1998 White Paper
4b. Yes – introduce radical economic transformation in labour policy and help 9 million unemployed
5. “Amandla! Awethu!” means power to the people, not government – it’s time to decentralise!
You can access more in-depth documentation regarding the above on the FMF’s website:
Submission to the High Level Panel: Land Reform
Property rights our most important fight in South Africa
Land reform: restitution, not redistribution, is the proper vehicle
Government land is central to land reform
Why RDP housing is keeping people poor
The FMF will be hosting a media briefing on 21 June 2017, which will provide an overview of the FMF’s alternatives as well as our vision for Radical Economic Transformation.