EWC or corruption-free governance, not both – IRR

The imminent court appearance of African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Ace Magashule on corruption charges risks being misjudged as a significant step in confronting the damage corruption is inflicting on South Africa.
 
Fraud, looting and malfeasance by politicians and state functionaries are undoubtedly a threat to South Africa’s chances of succeeding in becoming a fair, stable and prospering country. But a far greater threat is the corruptive impact of ANC policy-making, and particularly the ruling party’s drive to undermine property rights.
 
So long as the ANC remains hell-bent on pursuing its policy of expropriation without compensation (EWC) – which will give inordinate power to a corrupt state to seize the assets of South Africans, black and white – the fight against corruption itself will be emasculated, and the prospect of attracting the investment, achieving the growth, and creating the jobs on which a brighter future for ordinary people depends will remain beyond South Africa’s reach.
 
Already, the ruling party has caved in on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s unequivocal commitment at the end of August, that ‘cadres of the movement who are formally charged with corruption or other serious crimes must immediately step aside from all leadership positions in the ANC, legislatures and other government structures pending the finalisation of their cases’.
 
Just as the import of this moral collapse on the part of the ANC is inescapable, so too are the wholly predictable consequences of the ruling party’s policy-making priorities.
 
The fate of freedom, enterprise and success in South Africa hinges on abandoning the damaging EWC policy – along with race-based empowerment and other policies which have all been shown to be central to the scourge of corruption in the state under ANC rule.
 
Property rights underpin human rights in all free societies; eroding them is the first corruptive step towards tyranny and the abuse of citizens.
 
The choice facing the government is plain: it can either have EWC, or corruption-free governance, but it cannot have both.

 
Media contact: Hermann Pretorius, IRR Deputy Head of Policy Research – 079 875 4290; hermann@irr.org.za
Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za
Kelebogile Leepile Tel: 079 051 0073 Email: kelebogile@irr.org.za