Land Appropriation … Cyril Ramaphosa… Don’t do it!!

I met your personal assistant, who served with me on the panel of legal experts as regards Carte Blanch coverage of the Oscar Pistorius Trial. I cannot believe that she is advising you to even consider grabbing land without compensation.

Such course of action is illegal under international law, United Nations conventions and policies of international agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In addition the human rights sector expressly forbids this.

This now universal prohibition is founded on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the World got after two (2) World Wars and the Holocaust. This paradigm shift in human culture is the direct product of millions having spilled their blood and given their lives. It is a most precious commodity that is simply not negotiable.

1. Grabbing property from Whites will, in the first instance be an express violation of Article 7 of the UDHR that expressly states ---

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

2. It will also be an express violation of Article 2 -

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

3. It will also be an express violation of Article 17 -

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
4. The above rights are limited in terms of Article 29 ONLY by …
law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

In so far as this Article is being proffered as justification for land grabbing the short jurisprudential argument is that there is nothing moral or good or democratic about grabbing land from “innocent humans” without compensation.

Yes, Whites are in disproportionate possession of land. However, they are no more to blame for this than those suffering from land hunger. Neither groups can be held responsible for the capriciousness of history.

CONSEQUENCES ---- If you start grabbing ln without compensation the World, led by the UN and its agencies, WILL react to the extreme detriment of South Africa. Understand that international agencies, such and the IMF and the World Bank, now have policies that expressly bind them to react to the detriment of any country violating the sacred Articles of the UDHR. They do not have a choice.

South Africa will become a pariah State overnight, as did Zimbabwe.

The Consequences will be emphatic and disastrous.

Is that what we want?

Have we really not learned anything from the judgment of our own African Judges who sat as the SADC Tribunal and ruled against this as regards Robert Mugabe’s land grabs??

Don’t do it.

It is madness to even consider it.

PS: --- why do you think, imagine or suppose Emmerson Mnangagwa has now committed to compensation for the White farmers that were dispossessed of land???