SA political economy update Q4-2018

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 05 Dec 2018 by Iraj Abedian

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The past few weeks have registered important developments for the SA political economy landscape. We like to review the key issues:Constitutional Change for Land Expropriation without Compensation (EWC): The much debated, feared, and anticipated Parliamentary support for the change of the constitution to enable land expropriation without compensation was given yesterday. As I have elaborated in my commentaries before, this is not necessarily either new or negative. It is not new because EWC was possible before but required a very lengthy and costly legal process to be followed. So, the process going forward can potentially become a lot more specific and a great deal more transparent and efficient. This will depend on the terms and conditions as prescribed in the forthcoming legislation governing EWC. In this regard, the ANC and the EFF are on totally different pages. Clearly much electioneering is at play. But when all said and done, the EFF does not have the required parliamentary vote to push for destructive versions of EWC. The ANC has ‘stolen’ the political show from the EFF, and placed the process within the legislative machinery of the Parliament where the EFF is the weakest. So, in all likelihood the version favoured by the ANC will ultimately prevail. This means an orderly land expropriation with due respect to the productive use of the land, fair treatment of legitimate claims by communities, and more critically an appropriate access to land for primarily urban housing- as unpacked in details in our previous analysis and notes.National Prosecuting Agency reboots: The NPA in the SA democratic dispensation has a pivotal role in maintaining the political economy ...