Expropriation Act, 2024

And secondly, a big concern is property rights.

Because they've actually, amazingly, read the Expropriation Act and seen that any fixed or movable asset can be taken without market-related compensation.

That makes them uncomfortable.

Given that mineral rights were taken and water rights were taken and some people around would like to take medical aid savings and pension funds beyond those.

And so we had a quite a narrow focus.

So I was invited to speak about threats to private property rights, specifically the expropriation act and the kind of broader property rights framework, which is under continuous assault by the national government or the central government, I should say.

And then Martin spoke about the, Ubiquity of race law in South Africa.

He was actually appearing, wearing the hat of editor of the Race Law Index, of which he's become quite famous for.

And then you had your colleague, Martin Mossadin, talking about the race laws.

And I'd like to get into a bit of detail about what you spoke about in both of those topics.

But let's start with property rights and the Expropriation Act.

Why were you invited to talk about the Expropriation Act and property rights in South Africa at a vigil for an issue of rural safety? What is the linkage there? And then What was your speech about?

And the point you make there about, you know, honest, uh, the, the necessity for honesty and that at least, at the very least, if you have an honest conversation, you may be able to find common ground.

The story that we'll end out with today is about someone who has done the exact opposite, who we're gonna talk about Fikile Mbalula, uh, who has decided to pen a response to, uh, well, pen, pen an escalation maybe in Africa today to try and correct the Americans', uh, what he sees as misunderstanding of, uh, the Expropriation Act.

And now, James, his account of the facts doesn't seem to really jive with reality.

[chuckles] Um, so what was wrong with Mbalula's attempted defense of expropriation?

Um, but, but it was, it was a cleverly put together sort of deceptive, um, article.

And so really what...

You know, when he tries to correct the Americans, do you think that their, their sense of what's going on with the Expropriation Act, is there anything wrong with their understanding there?

No.

Possible expropriation in future.

They don't like the Expropriation Act, and they also don't like laws like BEE and affirmative action enacted on foreign companies, American companies, especially smaller-sized American companies.

find it difficult to start businesses in South Africa with those specific laws in place.

So I think that's a challenge.

The DA goes to court against employment equity.

The ANC advances, um, um- The, the Expropriation Act, the DA goes to court against Expropriation Act.

The ANC says there needs to be NSI, the DA goes against that.

So what does that speak to when it comes to the coherence, um, of the government? Look at, for example, even when it comes to international relations, the foreign policy of the ANC and the DA completely opposite.

And the current administration, where I will give them credit, is they haven't been like the South Africans.

You know, we don't have an, you know, appropriation, Expropriation Act like the South Africans have.

People often forget that this, by law, yes, they haven't implemented it, but right now in the Ma- in the South African Constitution, there is an expropriation clause.

We forget that South Africa is dabbling in the Middle East.

So why is this happening? What we've seen… Remember what people say, oh, you went to the U.S.

to say, act against… South Africa because of the Expropriation Act and whatever.

We must look at the timelines.

What has happened on the 23rd of January? 2025, President Ramaphosa made public that he signed the Expropriation Act.

And he signed it already on the 20th of December the previous year, but he kept it quiet.

Within 10 days, we were not in the U.S. We did not know the president signed the Expropriation Act.

Within 10 days, Donald Trump, President Trump signed posted on social media, I'm going to act against South Africa with US aid money, PEPFAR money being taken away because they disrespect property rights.

So, you know, now people blame us for that.