South Africa is now ranked thirty-seventh in the global property rights rankings of the International Property Rights Index, with its score having declined from seven in 2017, when the country ranked twenty-seventh, to 6.35 this year.
This is the largest decline by any country measured, mostly owing to government’s accepted policy of land expropriation without compensation and aim of changing Section 25 of the Constitution, which protects property rights and ownership.
South Africa is now second in the African region of the index, behind Rwanda.
The global index – published by the Free Market Foundation and Property Rights Alliance – ranks property right protections in 125 countries, covering 98% of the world’s gross domestic product and 93% of the global population.
The index measures the strength of physical property rights and intellectual property rights and assesses the legal and political environments that sustain them.
Worldwide, six-billion people suffer from inadequate protection of their property rights.
Only 758-million people, or 13%, of the world enjoy adequate protections for their artistic works, inventions, and private property.
Finland, New Zealand and Switzerland are ranked the highest on property rights protections on the International Property Rights Index.