Property Expropriation: South Africa to Follow Mugabe Model

This is a terrifying development but, to be honest, one you could see coming from a mile away.

God help the white farmers and property owners of South Africa.

The government has awarded a license to steal.

It’s not just farms. The law applies to any fixed property.

— Martin van Staden (@Martin_ASFL) January 23, 2025

As much as South Africa has tremendous natural resources and so much stunning natural beauty they could have a viable national economy on tourism alone, there is so much internecine tribal warfare and outright government corruption that they are a failed state in the last throes of exploiting every last penny from the few money earners they have.

Twice I’ve focused on the country in the past couple of years. The first time, I covered their national power grid or what was supposed to pass for one.

…The culprit in all this is the country’s nationalized energy company known as ESKOM and it’s corruption central. They’ve spent billions on coal-fired plants that don’t run properly, the older plants haven’t been maintained, engineers who could fix things have been leaving the country in droves and organized crime snatches up replacement parts before they ever make it to the plants.

…Under the ruling African National Congress (ANC), in charge since 1994, Eskom has become synonymous with corruption, crime, and mismanagement.

Last year a judge-led inquiry into graft under the former president, Jacob Zuma, found that there were grounds to prosecute several former Eskom executives.

The government has failed to build new power stations to keep up with increased demand, and warnings from energy experts on looming supply shortages across the past two decades have gone ignored.

Yesterday, the Capetown Airport had no power.

Eventually, Cape Town will be Johannesburg. pic.twitter.com/9v0yBtVydb

— k9_reaper | T.I.A (@k9_reaper) January 22, 2025

The second was as the increasingly openly racist government began legislatively squeezing water supplies to white farmers.

…This is a direct strike at what’s left of South Africa’s farmers, who are a tiny minority in the country, but predominantly white. The leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance Party unloaded on the government yesterday.

Hot on the heels of newly-gazetted draft Race Quotas designed to ban entire groups of South Africans from employment in certain sectors and provinces, the ANC government has now also gazetted race quotas that will determine access to water on the basis of skin colour.

The draft regulations, published by Minister of Water Senzo Mchunu on 19 May, introduce race quotas for the allocation of water use licences, which are vital to the survival of businesses in sectors such as agriculture, forestry and mining.

Under the ANC’s new water race quotas, applicants that use more than 250 000 m3 or withdraw more than a set minimum amount from streams need to meet strict racial quotas in order to get access to water – the single most critical resource required for life, livestock, agriculture and industry. Depending on the size of their water need, farmers or companies that have not “allocated” between 25% and 75% of its shares to what the regulations call “blacks,” will be denied access to water.

I also made sure to mention the open season on white farmers in South Africa…

People ask me, why don’t we fight back or do something. From 1996-2022 we had 13930 #farmattacks in South Africa. The video clip left show farmer fighting off 3 armed killers.
Every couple of years we gather and protest for the world to see.

Fact is we are a minority in a… pic.twitter.com/7JFMVp54pv

— Boer (@twatterbaas) February 6, 2024

…something that occurs regularly but somehow never makes the news here

Hunted as if for sport. South Africa’s farmers are at war. https://t.co/dYAO41evsW pic.twitter.com/8y0oSEZHxE

— k9_reaper | T.I.A (@k9_reaper) June 1, 2023

To be fair, our media would be applauding. White privilege and oppression, and all that.

You know, the same media that told South Africans not to worry about a thing. They had a wonderful opportunity to turn out just like Zimbabwe.

I mean, ‘look at this jovial Mugabe fellow,’ Dan Rather chirped. 

Life is sure swell here for everybody.

Yeah.

Sure was.

Rather was right for probably the first time in his progressive life, and only because he didn’t know it at the time.

South Africa is the next Zimbabwe.

Mugabe allowed ‘veterans’ to steal white farmers’ lands, often slaughtering them and their families simultaneously by simply occupying it. It saved him from having to pay his army.

White South African farmers are already banned from exporting their produce to the EU and UK on account of being “too white.” So this is the final nail in the coffin. pic.twitter.com/0gtu6pJ7Bb

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 23, 2025

Ramaphosa, on the other hand, has a legislative mandate to expropriate private property ‘for public purposes’ as the state or local government sees fit.

It’s a pretty open, loosey-goosey definition of what qualifies as up for grabs. Sounds like most anything that catches their eye.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law the Expropriation Bill which repeals the pre-democratic Expropriation Act of 1975 and sets out how organs of State may expropriate land in the public interest for varied reasons.

The Bill, which has undergone a five-year process of public consultation and parliamentary deliberation, aligns legislation on expropriation with the Constitution.

Section 25 of the Constitution recognises expropriation as an essential mechanism for the state to acquire someone’s property for a public purpose or in the public interest, subject to just and equitable compensation being paid.

…The Bill assented to by President Ramaphosa outlines how expropriation can be done and on what basis. This law will assist all organs of State – local, provincial and national authorities – to expropriate land in the public interest for varied reasons.

Local, provincial and national authorities will use this legislation to expropriate land in the public interest for varied reasons that seek, among others, to promote inclusivity and access to natural resources.

‘Don’t get your panties in a wad,‘ the government soothingly said when this bill was first passed last spring. It’s simply a ‘necessary realignment.’

There’s nothing to be frightened of! 

Legal experts allay many of the fears that this bill threatens land ownership security in South Africa. Legal experts have pointed out technicalities in the law which have been misconstrued. The key word here is ‘nil,’ in ‘nil compensation’ for land expropriation. Nil denotes a monetary value and therefore is not the same as ‘no’ compensation.

Clause 12 of the new amendments allows the courts to determine the circumstances for nil compensation. This means that the courts can determine when nil compensation is neither just nor equitable as per the Constitution. It is expected that moves to expropriate for nil compensation will be contested, first via a consultative process required by the bill, and if there is no agreement, through litigation. Infringements of property rights in the near future are therefore unlikely.

…While land is a sensitive topic in South Africa and the passing of this bill has been divisive, it is clear that there is no immediate risk to land ownership security. This is an important outcome for the agriculture sector where land is a key asset. The amendments are also important for aligning the bill with the current Constitution, which guarantees fair and just compensation in cases of land expropriation.

We filed our 5000-page genocide case against Israel at the Hague – we’re pretty much acknowledged to be genocide experts – and now we’re going to look like Zimbabwe.

Who needs the lights on?