The civil rights organisation AfriForum takes note of the National Assembly failing to pass the amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation today. The ANC failed to get the two-thirds majority required to pass the Bill.
Ernst van Zyl, Campaign Officer for strategy and content at AfriForum says, “The failure of a deeply immoral Bill that would have allowed state sanctioned theft and human rights violations is a major victory for South Africans. Expropriation without compensation is an inhumane policy motivated by a combination of corrupt greed and resentment.”
“We’ve seen the catastrophic devastation that expropriation of property without compensation policies have caused in countries such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela, and how much suffering such policies caused for the average citizens of those countries. Therefore, the defeat of an attempt to recreate those horrible and destructive policies here in South Africa should be celebrated.”
AfriForum is aware that the fight to defend property rights in South Africa is not over, and that these rights might be threatened again in the future. Therefore, the organisation reaffirms its commitment to being a civil rights watchdog against such violating policies, and to oppose them in the strongest sense should they be considered again.
