Working people and owners of private property excluded from public participation over expropriation

The civil rights organisation AfriForum expressed its objection to the fact that working people are excluded from the public participation process that the parliamentary committee is arranging regarding expropriation without compensation.

This follows after the committee announced that all the public participation meetings will take place at 11:00 in the morning. AfriForum earlier wrote to the committee and warned that the organisation would, due to a variety of conspicuous procedural shortfalls, obtain legal advice on the process that is being followed to consult with the public.

In a letter to the chairpersons of the parliamentary committee Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of AfriForum, said that the result hereof is that working people – and those most likely to be owners of private property – are excluded from the process. “It is unfathomable that a process of public participation would be organised with the aim of obtaining public input regarding expropriation of private property, while the very people who are running the risk of losing their property are then excluded from the process,” says Roets.

Roets reaffirmed that it would seem to AfriForum that the process is structured and manipulated in a specific manner with the aim to ensure a specific outcome – namely an outcome that is in keeping with the view of the ruling party.