We Africans never learn – Why RSA's EWC law is destined for disaster: Rejoice Ngwenya

Key Topics:Populist laws lead to economic collapse and unintended harmZimbabwe’s land reform caused long-term poverty and dislocationSouth Africa risks repeating Zimbabwe’s EWC policy mistakes.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Rejoice Ngwenya*.One major incapacitation of policy making is ignorance of unintended consequences. Whenever an arrogant populist government imposes on its citizenry bad laws, the outcomes will always be unsavoury. Morality and good intentions count for nothing in national governance; If they did, we would all retire in state-sponsored bliss cushioned with national endowment. Benevolence and selfless disposition are necessary ecclesial prudence but fatal when conflated with national economic policy. Moreover, populist legislation, even under the threat of defeat by fledgling opposition, let alone guise of ‘social safety net’ does not suffice as political redemption. Yet we Africans seem to totally ignore correlation of idiotic populism with catastrophic economic decline. I am an enlightened Zimbabwean living that experience. When I embarked on an epic journey that took me to Johannesburg and Kwazulu-Natal’s Sizabantu Mission, I saw myself as a libertarian crusader on a noble mission. The Free-Market Foundation had organised a conference to interrogate implications of Expropriation Without Compensation (EWC). Since I am a Zimbabwean alert to the nightmare of bad laws, I had to share my experience with fellow Africans. Tragically, South Africans who extol virtues of expropriation unfairly labelled me a lapdog of white capitalist interests. In the last election, President Cyril Ramaphosa and his African National Congress survived a rude awakening on how nationalist politics encounters incremental resentment in the face of a restive population flustered by unrealistic electoral promises. Ramaphosa was compelled into a Government of National Unity having flopped at garnering parliamentary majority. Therefore, he and his co-conspirators conjure a grand heist – ostensibly to lure the next generation of voters. If I remember correctly, during my epic libertarian journey, it was mostly pro-EWC Economic Freedom Front zealots who lambasted me. Back then, Ramaphosa supporters were ambivalent. However, the rise of Mkhonto weSizwe MK party coupled with nagging presence of Democratic Alliance have jump-started Ramaphosa into assenting EWC laws only to appease black voters. I am not a big fan of the pre-democracy Expropriation Act of 1975 that gave white citizens unfettered access to arable land. It is not right for a minority to own more than 70% of freehold land. However, all South Africans now know what fate befell Zimbabwe when Robert Mugabe’s Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP) went off the rails. We ended up with the black ruling elite occupying all the juicy land while millions of villagers languished on arid spaces with neither infrastructure nor farming expertise. Since 2001, Zimbabwe has endured annual food shortages although tobacco production has quadrupled nonetheless with a very high environmental cost. Millions of Zimbabweans currently occupy land without title deeds, so they have no collateral to finance farming inputs. Most are promised ‘Presidential Input Schemes’ of seed and fertiliser that usually fall into hands of a few party zealots. As Mugabe’s psychotic followers rampaged through ‘acquired’ farms, thousands of agricultural workers were displaced while some white farmers were murdered. Western countries were so horrified they had no choice but impose strict economic sanctions, the most common of which was ZIDERA – Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act. This saw Mugabe and an entire generation of ZanuPF leadership banned from the West. Ian Smith’s Rhodesia Front had ‘mortgaged’ commercial farming to a sophisticated banking system. Then Mugabe’s ‘land reform’ desecrated this ‘farm-bank’ value chain and results savaged the Zimbabwe Dollar. When the country adopted the multi-currency system in 2009, there was a semblance of recovery, yet irreversible damage had already occurred. Capacity utilisation plunged to 30%, unemployment soared to 90% as inflation hit five digits. Promises that FTLRP would ‘equalise’ distribution of wealth are what lured Zimbabweans into an extended period of political stupor up until 2017 when Mugabe was deposed. Now we know that when politicians talk about ‘equity’, ‘justice’ and ‘public interest’, it is prudent to analyse such rhetoric. Millions of gullible Zimbabweans believed Mugabe, yet it was his family and ruling elite that ended up with more than ten commercial farms each. EWC is blatant retribution rather than pragmatic economic policy. No wonder political analyst Isaac Mashaba opines how Ramaphosa wants to reignite racial segregation. EWC or FTLRP are a whip to inflict vengeance on white citizens. Its objective cannot end up with a good outcome. There is no ‘expropriation authority’ immune to political manipulation. Have we forgotten bad outcomes of BEE? Moreover, even legislated provision for ‘payment of just and equitable compensation in the event of expropriation’ is quickly discarded whenever there is a dispute. Contradictions are typical of EWC or FTLRP policies. Zimbabwe’s Bill of Rights in Sections 71 and 72 is at odds when it comes to the right of the citizen to own land. Just as the EFF argues that EWC is short of giving the State 100% land ownership, Zimbabwe’s section 72 strains to make the State a dominant player in land ownership. We all now know the results of the State owning anything! Do not get me wrong. Every nation deserves reparations for past injustices. However, use of legislative contraptions like ‘expropriation’ and ‘acquisition’ contradicts noble intentions. In the case of Zimbabwe, if ‘land reform’ was meant to equitably distribute wealth - apart from ‘empowering the indigenous population’ – why are thousands of Zimbabweans loitering in South Africa searching for jobs as millions of others back home face food poverty? Now that Emerson Mnangagwa’s ‘second republic’ has tasted the full wrath of private property violations, the Global Compensation Agreement to repay US$3.5 billion of expropriated commercial farms is admission that things should have been done correctly. Had Zimbabwe complied with the SDAC Tribunal, our state of politics and economy would have been in better stead. Instead, all Mugabe’s expropriatory cheer leaders – like Thabo Mbeki and professor Jonathan Moyo – are either silent or in hiding as my country is whipped by the headwinds of policy ineptitude. .Read also:Ben Freeth: Beware SA – EWC looks a lot like Zim’s 1992 foundational land grab law🔒 Greenland heads for elections while eyeing Trump’s proposed land grabZimbabwe’s unending cycle of land grabs amidst political instability and economic hardships – Cathy Buckle .*Rejoice Ngwenya is the Director of Coalition for Market and Liberal Solutions based in Ruwa, Zimbabwe and an Associate of the Free Market Foundation.

We Africans never learn – Why RSA's EWC law is destined for disaster: Rejoice Ngwenya

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