Thank you Mr Suhr, for your introduction and the perspective of KAS on our important conference. Former President De Klerk has set the scene further by his astute analysis and comments about the possible change of section 25 of the Constitution.
We have convened this Conference at a critical time in the history of our young democracy.
The ANC and Parliament have adopted resolutions calling for expropriation without compensation (EWC). By so doing they have posed a fundamental threat to investment, economic growth, agriculture, food security and to the national accord on which our new nonracial democracy was founded.
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to welcome you on behalf of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. The topic of this conference – the debate on land and property rights – is heavily discussed in media, politics and society – basically everywhere in the country. When the De Klerk Foundation approached us to support this event, we did not have to think twice due to actuality and relevance of the issue.
Land reform – and by that I mean the debate on restitution, redistribution and tenure reform as well as on the use of land – touches so many key policy areas, for instance the agriculture sector, housing, urban and rural development and so on. It is also relevant for constitutional questions or issues of social justice. And finally it is especially related to the past of South Africa and the overcoming of the wounds which were inflicted. Many people are somehow affected by land reform and therefore everyone has his or her own perspective on the matter.
The recently launched Indlulamithi Scenarios 2030 has once again focused the minds of South Africans on what the future might hold and steps to be taken to achieve optimal outcomes in respect of the democratic process, economic growth and crucially that of building an inclusive, socially-cohesive society.
In a recently-published article, A Strategy Built on Race Profiling and Hate, the Centre for Unity in Diversity (CUD) put the searchlight on yet another incident of race-baiting and instigation by Julius Malema at a Youth Day event in Klerksdorp.
The FW de Klerk Foundation welcomes the Constitutional Court’s decision in My Vote Counts NPC v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and Another. The decision, which confirmed an earlier Western Cape High Court ruling, makes it apparent that the unchecked funding of political parties or individuals running for political office, has no place within a constitutional democracy founded on values of transparency and accountability.
The decision enhances the voting public’s right to make informed political choices through requiring that the information pertaining to the private funding of political parties and independent candidates must be recorded, preserved and made reasonably accessible. The provisions of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA), which excluded political parties and independent candidates from its purview, were also declared invalid. The order of invalidity was however suspended for 18 months to allow Parliament to remedy PAIA to bring the Act in line with the decision. This means that there is a high likelihood that political parties in the 2019 national and provincial elections will be governed by the amended PAIA. South Africa’s democracy will be all the richer for it.
The leader of the EFF is at it again! This time he has South African Indians in his line of fire, while maintaining his unrelenting hate campaign against white people.
The leader of the EFF is at it again! This time he has South African Indians in his line of fire, while maintaining his unrelenting hate campaign against white people.
The FW de Klerk Foundation, like thousands of other organisations and individual South Africans, submitted its views on the amendment to section 25 of the Constitution to allow expropriation without compensation (EWC) to the parliamentary Constitutional Review Committee. The Foundation regards this question as being of central importance to the future of South Africa – not only with regard to the essential requirement for a successful process of land reform, but also for the future of property rights and hence the future prospects for the economy, as well as for the future of race relations in South Africa.
Together with numerous respected jurists, including the late Arthur Chaskalson CJ, as well as the High Level Panel appointed by Parliament, the Foundation believes that it is not necessary to change section 25 of the Constitution to achieve land reform and extend property rights to all South Africans.
