The Free Market Foundation (FMF) has said that a sustained pressure campaign by foreign groups, politicians, and governments is crucial until the government “finally and decisively” abandons any plans to confiscate private property.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, February 12, by Martin van Staden, the Head of Policy at the FMF, the organisation said more than a concerted campaign by civic groups inside South Africa, a single tweet by Donald Trump, or a statement in the House of Commons made the government and ANC stop and take notice.
“The Trump-tweet strategy has been tried before and sparked a meaningful dialogue, but South Africa needs more help this time. A sustained pressure campaign by foreign groups, politicians, and governments is crucial until the ANC finally decisively abandons any plans to confiscate private property.
“Of course, South Africa is not the international community's responsibility. Civil society here will do everything within its reasonable power to fight against this attack on basic freedom. But just like the international community played a significant – often but not always detrimental – role in how South Africa turned out in the 1990s, it can now fix some of the damage and entrench some of the good it did back then.”
Van Staden argued that there are large numbers of “sensible black” South Africans who understand how destructive it is to abandon secure property rights and that this is not black versus white, adding that it is totalitarianism versus liberty.
He further accused the South African government of potentially trying to distort the truth about what might unfold over the next few weeks and months and stated that ANC land reform policy is not about redistributing land from a minority to the majority but about redistributing property from the people to the State.
However, the South African government strongly refuted the claims and spreading of misinformation aimed at targeting South Africa.