Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen: Don’t beat about the bush on expropriation risks – IRR

Both President Cyril Ramaphosa and John Steenhuisen have done the country a disservice in their responses to US President Donald Trump’s threat to investigate the implications of the Expropriation Act.

The IRR has warned extensively of the consequences of signing the Expropriation Act, which places South Africa’s economy, its plans for growth and our trade relationships in great danger.

As ANC leader and President, Cyril Ramaphosa is defending his party’s long-standing commitment to the National Democratic Revolution (NDR), which is to be expected.

After a failed 2021 constitutional amendment, the President has continued to champion the greatest threat to property rights in South Africa’s modern democratic history.

The President’s recent post on X claiming that the Expropriation Act is a “constitutionally mandated legal process…guided by the Constitution” is a misrepresentation of legislation that contains serious constitutional flaws and vague provisions that empower the State to deprive ordinary citizens of their property rights and their economic freedom.

In April 2024, the IRR urged President Ramaphosa to send the draft law back to Parliament, using Section 79(1) of the Constitution.

Now, President Ramaphosa must accept the consequences of his actions, says IRR researcher Chris Patterson. “Endangering the relationship with our second-largest trading partner is not only reckless and dangerous to South Africans who rely on US aid, but also to South African businesses which employ hundreds of thousands of people in sectors like agriculture, mining and the automotive industry, which rely on access to the US market through AGOA.”

Mr Steenhuisen – as leader of the second-largest party in the Government of National Unity and a party ostensibly committed to the Constitution – should be sounding the alarm about the impact that this will have on South Africa’s economic growth prospects and on job creation – the very challenges that prompted the Democratic Alliance to enter the GNU in the first place.

The DA’s opposition to the 2021 constitutional amendment is irrelevant in the current situation, says Patterson.

Secure property rights are the backbone of a growing economy. South Africans do not deserve a government that plays down the risks to property rights, socio-economic mobility and economic freedom contained in pro-poverty legislation.

“The Expropriation Act is a current and existential threat to the livelihoods, jobs and economic freedom of South Africans that will endure until it is brought in line with the Constitution,” Patterson concludes.

Visit the IRR’s website at www.irr.org.za to support its fight for property rights.

Media contact:  Chris Patterson, IRR Researcher Tel: 063 682 5035 Email: chrisp@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za