Land reform: The free market way

If not expropriation without compensation, then what? How do South Africans finally redress the imbalances caused by apartheid? EM Jadwa from Durban asked these very questions in a letter to The Star last week.

What is the answer? It is a fallacy to believe the authoritarian notion of the forceful seizure of property and the allied notion of state custodianship of all property is the way to distance ourselves from an equally authoritarian past. The 1994 election and the 1996 Constitution were meant to be a departure from the state-centric mentality of apartheid toward a people- and freedom-centric future.

Here are some solutions to the problem of skewed property (moreover, land) ownership caused by apartheid that do not violate the necessary ingredient for prosperity: private property rights.

[Read the full article at HuffPost SA here:]

Martin van Staden

Martin van Staden sits on the Executive Committee and Rule of Law Board of Advisors of the Free Market Foundation. He is pursuing a doctorate in law at the University of Pretoria and is author of 'The Constitution and the Rule of Law: An Introduction' (2019).

Publish date: 27 March 2018
Views: 1 419

Martin van Staden, land reform, expropriation, property rights, Land Reform

The views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Foundation. This article may be republished without prior consent but with acknowledgement to the author.

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