Kallie Kriel, who is the CEO of minority rights lobby group, AfriForum, says his organisation “will mobilise the international community for them [the international community] to warn the South African government from going into a mode where they are going to destroy the country’s economy.”
Speaking to Political Analysis South Africa on Friday, 2 March, he said his organisation’s campaign is not only about land, or specifically the ongoing debate about land expropriation, but also property rights. Kriel believes that “if they [the ANC government] changes the constitution, it would make possible expropriation without compensation, which also includes any kind of property.”
Asked why his organisation chose to embark on an international campaign, as opposed to a local one, Kriel says, “the fact is if Parliament has voted to start a process to change the constitution, then you do not have any legal remedies locally because the constitution would allow for that to happen. So we actually have no other choice but to go to the international community, we are actually trying to stop the country going the Zimbabwe route, because we will lose investment in this country if property rights are not respected.”
Kriel pushed back against claims that such a move is unpatriotic or treasonous, saying “if anybody is acting treasonous it would be the ANC by accepting at their conference, as part of their policy, that they want to expropriate without compensation. So the ANC has committed treason against the country by the fact that they are willing to destroy our economy – we do not have to look far for an example, we saw what happened in Zimbabwe. So I believe it is a very patriotic from our side to try and protect our country’s economy by stopping it from going a route that we know will be disastrous for all.”
The organisation says the campaign will include lobbying South Africa’s trade partners, and if the ANC does not give in, AfriForum says it will go to the World Economic Forum in Davos next year, as well as other international bodies. Kriel says AfriForum will also conduct a similar local campaign, and the organisation “will participate in the consultation process of this committee that is looking at the revision of the constitution.”
In the final analysis says Kriel, “there was consultation locally and that consultation was the new South African constitution, where minorities were told that if you give up your political power, you will in turn have protection for issues such as language and property, and on both those counts, we have seen the ANC breaking the agreement. We now see that Afrikaans has been taken away at universities, we now see the property clause being adapted. So the ANC has broken the 1994 agreement and they can never just expect of us to sit back and do nothing about it. We will fight this to the bitter end.”