Trump’s critical reference to South Africa’s new expropriation law has thrown a cat among the pigeons, triggering overwhelming reactions and immediate polarization between landowners who feel threatened by the law and politicians, analysts, and business organizations who insist that the law will not be enforced to its full potential.
Saai’s members are among those most concerned because they stand to lose the most. Before farmers can buy into the argument that this law will not be as harmful as feared, that there are sufficient checks and balances to protect individual interests, and that there is nothing to fear, they want clear and honest answers to some critical questions:
- **What will prevent a radical local councillor in a corrupt municipality from testing this legislation by expropriating a sixth-generation farmer’s land at a quarter of its market value?**
- **If the case goes to court, will it be judged by the same judiciary that ruled that "Kill the farmer, kill the Boer" is not hate speech, and that has criticized white advocates because their clients did not choose to appoint black colleagues to represent them?**
- **Who will pay for the legal battles? Will the expropriating officials contribute anything from their own pockets, face any risks, or suffer any consequences if their actions fail?**
- **How exactly will the amount of compensation be calculated? What is the mathematical formula that leads to zero compensation? What figures or percentages will be deducted from market value, and on what basis? Who decides on these formulas, and how will they be held accountable?**
- **What role will race play in the implementation of this law?**
- **Where were you when Akkerland was expropriated in 2018? What contribution did you make in the fight against arbitrary expropriation at a fraction of market value when the Steenkamp family was stripped of their title deed? Will you be there for the next victims?**
- **Why must land be expropriated for less than market value—impoverishing family farmers—while billions are wasted annually on corrupt land reform transactions (like Mala-Mala), and 90% of land reform projects, according to the government's own admission, have failed?**
- **Why would any farmer plant trees that will only be ready for harvest five years from now if they run the risk of not being compensated for them upon expropriation?**
- **What is the plan for the interim period? What measures will stimulate investment, growth, job creation, and livelihoods amid the uncertainty and skepticism about property rights created by this law? And what if that plan (if one exists) fails?**
- **How and where in this law have the agricultural sector’s inputs been accommodated during the public participation process?**
- **If the government does not intend to implement this law to its full extent, including the seizure of farms at zero compensation, why pass and sign such a law at all?**
- **In what kind of democracy can an individual farmer be expected to foot the bill for a national responsibility? What is the moral argument for burdening an individual landowner rather than spreading the cost across the national treasury so that society as a whole shares the responsibility?**
- **Every farmer has a farm to lose. But banks and agribusinesses have all our farms to lose, as these serve as collateral for our production loans. Why are they so silent, and why do they sound as if they even welcome the law? What will happen to insured farm debt if we are expropriated at less than market-related values? Will farmers bear the loss alone, or will it be distributed across the financial value chain?**
- **If those defending the law struggle to answer any of these questions, why are they so determined to protect this damning new legislation? Whose interests are they truly serving?**
Farmers believe these are not unreasonable questions. These same questions will resurface when the first farmer is expropriated. No one knows whose number will be drawn first, but everyone will need to contribute to protecting that first victim.
The expropriation of Akkerland taught the agricultural community many lessons. The most important one is that every landowner is personally vulnerable to the whims of politically motivated officials. To protect yourself, you must be aligned with organizations and structures that are willing to stand up for you.
