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South Africans who believe in free market principles and property rights heaved a huge collective sigh of relief on 4 June when President Ramaphosa appeared to reject the EFF proposal that all land in South Africa should be under the “custodianship” of the state. In terms of the proposal, the state would assume custodianship of all land in the same manner it had already taken custodianship of South Africa’s mineral and water resources. All present landowners would, in effect, become tenants of the state under whatever conditions the state might deem appropriate - and no compensation would be payable to landowners for the loss of their property.

Serious concerns were raised at the beginning of June when ANC delegates on the Ad-Hoc Committee responsible for drafting the proposed amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution (the so-called ‘property clause’) appeared to be moving closer to the EFF position. They suggested the following amendment that opened the door to custodianship:

“The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to foster conditions which enable state custodianship and for citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis”.

They also came closer to endorsing the EFF’s proposal that ‘Land is a natural resource and the common heritage, which belongs to the people as a whole, under the custodianship of the democratic state’ - by accepting the inclusion of a new clause to the effect that ‘the land belongs to and is the common heritage of all South Africans’.

Issued by the FW de Klerk Foundation