To sign the petition, click here.
Impact of the Green Paper on Land Reform on civil rights
Put simply, the Green Paper on Land Reform aims to nationalise your right to purchase, manage and sell land. The Green Paper envisages to achieve this by way of:
1) A drastic restriction of landowners’ rights;
2) direct interference in the management of your land; and
3) abolishing independent valuations of your land.
With this legislation, the state will have the power to:
• Cancel your title deed;
• confiscate your land if it believes the land has been acquired unlawfully;
• prosecute at its own discretion; and
• grant amnesty at its discretion.
The danger of the Green Paper lies in the fact that it allows the State to first restrict your land rights, and then to take possession of your property. It is slower and more cunning than the Zimbabwean land grabs, but it would be just as drastic.
This legislation is not limited to agricultural land or farmers only, but will affect every South African’s rights.
“It is difficult to view the Green Paper as anything less than a document of racial mobilisation against white farmers.”
Dave Steward FW de Klerk Foundation
What you can do to stop the Green Paper:
AfriForum is part of a group of 21 organisations that aim to defend property rights. In order to stop the Green Paper, every South African citizen should be informed of the impact this legislation would have on his/her rights. Every person who wants to prevent the nationalisation of his/her property rights should make him-/herself heard by doing the following:
- Signing the petition at www.stopthegreenpaper.co.za.
- Support AfriForum’s legal actions that will be launched to stop this Act.
- Organisations can join the Ad Hoc Group for the Protection of Property Rights. Simply send an e-mail request to eiendomsregte@afriforum.co.za.
- Join local community organisations.
- Send this video to your friends and family.
Documents:
The proposed legislation was released by the Department of Land Reform in 2011 and describes why government will change land ownership in South Africa..
The blueprint was drawn up and accepted by 21 civil society organisations. It was compiled as an alternative policy to the Green Paper on Land Reform.
This document describes AfriForum’s formal stance on the Green Paper on Land Reform.
Analyses of the Green Paper’s impact can be viewed here:
This presentation discusses the link between the NDR and the Green Paper on Land Reform
Dr Anthea Jeffery, Institute for Race Relations
This document describes what the impact of the Green Paper would be on commercial agriculture.
Mr Bennie van Zyl, Transvaal Agricultural Union
