Lobby group AfriForum is opposing uMkhonto weSizwe Party’s (MKP’s) proposed private member’s Bill, which seeks to rewrite Section 25 of the Constitution, to abolish private land ownership.

Earlier this month MKP MP Mzwanele Manyi tabled a private member’s Bill which seeks to rewrite the Constitution to redefine how land and natural resources are owned and governed.

The draft Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Constitution to place all land in State custodianship.

AfriForum argued that Section 25 of the Constitution must remain unchanged or it will result in the scrapping of a basic human right currently guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

AfriForum submitted its written representation against MKP’s Amendment Bill, calling it an attack on private land ownership and all cultural and other communities that are “working towards self-sufficiency, cultural autonomy and internal self-determination in accordance with international law”.

The organisation claimed that the draft Bill specifically targets Afrikaners and ignores South Africa’s diverse cultures and complex history.

AfriForum head of Intercultural Relations and Cooperation Barend Uys claimed that the Bill would result in Afrikaners and other minority cultural communities being “second-class citizens”.

He explained that it would also make customary cultural communities and royal leaders permanent tenants on their own land and prevent them from legally owning their land and exercising full, unhindered control of it.

“It will prevent the full restoration of the dignity, healthy cultural self-image and self-esteem of cultural communities and their royal leaders, as they will be permanently defined as people who are considered ‘unfit’ to own and fully control their land,” Uys added.

He added that the Bill would further weaken the authority and influence of royal leaders, customary leadership structures and other community-based institutions, while diminishing cultural autonomy and cultural rights.

“…this change will enable continued and increasing dominance by government officials over the development, management and governance of land and property of cultural communities and the areas where they reside,” he said.

He sees the Bill as causing an economic catastrophe, warning of a significant drop in investor confidence.

He claimed that the proposed amendments would be in contravention of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as of Articles 3, 14, 19, 20, 21 and 28 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

AfriForum called on all cultural communities and their leaders to urgently make use of Section 20 of the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act 112 of 1991 to secure title deeds of the land they control.