ANC youth leaders want business nationalised

Flushed with its success in persuading the African National Congress (ANC) to probe nationalising mines, the ANC Youth League is now proposing expropriation of strategic sectors of the economy without compensation.

The demand is contained in the league’s discussion documents for its national conference, released at a press conference in Johannesburg yesterday. The league’s elective conference is due in June.

Last year the league prevailed at the ANC’s national general council when the mother body adopted its proposal that nationalising mines be investigated — despite President Jacob Zuma ’s insistence that the matter would not be discussed at the meeting.




If the proposal to expropriate businesses is adopted at the league’s conference, it could be tabled at the ANC’s policy conference next year and possibly adopted at its national conference in December next year.

ANC leaders desperate for the league’s votes at the party’s elective conference in Mangaung may be forced to support the idea.

The league’s economic transformation discussion document calls for the expropriation of the minerals, metals, banking, energy production and telecommunications sectors.

"The state should expropriate strategic sectors of the economy without compensation because paying for all the key and strategic resources stolen from the black majority, and Africans in particular, will take more than a lifetime to be realised," the document reads. "The state has no other option but to decisively transfer wealth, particularly natural resources from those who currently own it, for public purposes and in the public interest."

Leon Louw, MD of the Free Market Foundation, said such statements were "causing a lot of damage all over Africa".

"Most of Africa is trying to lift itself up to become attractive to investors, but such irresponsible comments knock it down."

Every time such a comment was made, SA shed R1bn of its gross domestic product, he said.

The document predicted that the expropriation proposals would receive an "imperialist backlash". It rubbished views that existing and potential investors would be troubled.

"The myth that such a policy framework will scare foreign direct investment should be dismissed because investors are never discouraged by definitive, concrete policy and legislative provisions," the document reads.

"Investors are mainly discouraged by uncertainty and the unpredictability of the laws and regulations related to business in a country."

Mr Louw warned that the league’s call should be taken seriously as it wielded influence in the ANC. "Unfortunately, it has to be taken seriously because of the popularity of their rhetoric."

Expropriation should take place for the government to construct roads, dams, develop townships and provide services such as telecommunications, water and electricity, the league argued.

It proposed amendments to the property clause in the constitution to give the government the power to expropriate for "public purpose and public interest".

The league also called for bilateral trade agreements to consider the state’s power to expropriate private property.

It was critical of black economic empowerment policy, which it said failed dismally to empower the majority of South Africans.

"Whilst politically liberated, SA remains economically semi-colonised concerning the control, ownership and the orientation of the economy.... The approach adopted by the democratic government in the first 17 years will never change these realities."

The league said the ANC government had failed to "transfer the economy to the majority".

The discussion documents have been distributed to youth league branches. If they are adopted by the league’s conference, they will probably be tabled at the ANC’s policy conference.

Before the ANC’s national general council last year, the league threatened to withdraw its support for leaders who did not support its calls for nationalisation.

That council instructed the ANC’s national executive committee to investigate the feasibility of the nationalisation of mines. The committee has appointed a team of experts to research the issue, and its report is expected to be tabled at the ANC policy conference next year.

League spokesman Floyd Shivambu has repeatedly stated that the organisation would not accept any outcome that is against the nationalisation of mines.

Source: Business Day