DA will fight expropriation without compensation despite 'consequences': Maimane

12 March 2018 - 17:14 By Aphiwe Deklerk
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Leader of the Democratic Alliance Mmusi Maimane. File photo.
Leader of the Democratic Alliance Mmusi Maimane. File photo.
Image: ALON SKUY

The Democratic Alliance is steadfast on its stance against land expropriation without compensation‚ despite the risk of losing the mayorship of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.

Leader Mmusi Maimane‚ during a media conference on Monday‚ said his party was maintaining this stance despite the “consequences”.

This comes after Julius Malema’s EFF threatened to vote Athol Trollip out as NMB mayor because the DA had voted against its motion for land expropriation without compensation in parliament.

Instead of toeing the EFF line‚ Maimane slammed the cosying up between the ANC and EFF in the municipality‚ saying it would bring controversial characters like former National Youth Development Agency boss Andile Lungisa into positions of power.

The DA has faced a public backlash after it sent an sms alleging that the ANC was planning to take away people’s homes through land expropriation without compensation.

At the media conference‚ Maimane again slammed the attempts to change the property clause of the country’s Constitution.

“Expropriation without compensation is state-sanctioned theft‚ which is inimical to economic growth and development‚” said Maimane.

He said property rights were the bedrock of development and economic growth and the country could not have a growing and thriving economy if it pursued expropriation of land without compensation.

“We are the party of the protection of all individual rights‚ cardinal among those the right to security of one’s own property and the right to enjoy the fruits of one’s labour. We regard the attempt to amend the Constitution as nothing but a populist effort to scapegoat the Constitution for the failure of the ANC‚ over twenty years‚ to reform land ownership‚” said Maimane.

He called for a rollout of title deeds to beneficiaries of RDP houses to ensure ownership for beneficiaries.

He said the DA government had the best track record on land reform. As part of the party’s campaign on land‚ on Tuesday it will visit beneficiaries of land reform in Wellington in the Western Cape.

It has also started a petition online against expropriation of land without compensation.

“The DA is committed to redressing land dispossession in our country but it must be done in line with the constitution. Where we govern‚ we have achieved the most successful land reform in South Africa‚ making recipients actual land owners‚ with title deeds to their land‚” reads the online petition.

It said the ANC and EFF want to deny ownership rights by making sure that government becomes the owner of all land and private property‚ making all South Africans permanent tenants of the state.

“This is not land reform. The DA wants people to be owners with the title deeds to their land. We must stop the ANC and the EFF from changing the Constitution to prevent South Africans from owning their own land and property. We need land reform that makes all people owners‚ not life-long tenants‚” it reads.

In his media conference‚ Maimane said the ANC and EFF employed “hate-filled racist undertones” in the land debate which sought to de-legitimise those who disagreed with them.

“We find it unconscionable that all of the millions of recipients of state-subsidised housing‚ (to take just one example) who are mainly poor‚ mainly black South Africans‚ stand to lose these houses again‚” said Maimane.

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