Cape Town - Afriforum has ruffled feathers in Parliament when it stated that the first white people to arrive in the country did not steal land from black, but negotiated with black land-owners.
The joint constitutional review committee is currently holding public hearings in Parliament on the possibility of amending Section 25, the property clause of the Constitution, to clarify how land could be expropriated without compensation.
AfriForum’s CEO Ernst Roets told MPs that the "biggest historic fallacy is that whites stole the land".
Roets battered the ANC and EFF, referring to them as being “drunk on power and ideology”.
He further charged that expropriation of land without compensation would undermine property rights as guaranteed under the Constitution.
“The great risk in pursuing land justice in SA is that it is done by weakening property rights and with a final solution. The policy (expropriation without compensation) is built on the false argument that the eroding of property rights and tampering with healthy market principles will lead to economic growth,” said Roets.
Roets’ views were met by both disappointment and anger from MPs across the political spectrum.
EFF MP Floyd Shivambu said: “I honestly think we should not be agitated by Afrikaner racist children. They are trying to mobilise the international community against the state, that is treasonous.
But we are a democratic country so we have to live with kids who express anti-black racism. If you are threatening us with war, we are more than ready,” said Shivambu.
African Christian Democratic Party MP Steve Swart spoke against Afriforum’s submission, and said it was working against all the efforts of nation building.