South Africa land GRAB: Farmers fleeing to Australia in ‘RECORD NUMBERS’ as fears grow
FARMERS in South Africa are fleeing to Australia in “record numbers” as the country braces itself for controversial land reforms.
South Africa: Ramaphosa reassures investors on land reforms
Thousands of predominantly white farmers are emigrating Down Under every month, as South Africa’s government prepares to roll out land seizures to make right the “original sin” of how the black population was treated in days gone by. A law firm based in Perth, Western Australia, said the number of South Africans who have arrived on Australia’s shores since last February is estimated to be at least 162,000. Karen Kotze, a migration expert at Suffolk Law, said the firm receives “up to 10 enquiries a day” from South Africans considering making the move.
In February, a record high of 500 migration information enquiries were submitted to the company over a 60-day period.
It happened around the same time Australian home affairs minister Peter Dutton said South Africa’s farmers deserved to be given “special attention” because they were facing violence and land grabs at home.
Mr Dutton even offered to extend refugee or humanitarian status to the farmers.
In December, the South African parliament approved a report endorsing a constitutional amendment that would allow for land to be taken from farmers without compensation.
Since apartheid ended in 1994, racial inequality has continued to blight the once-divided nation and land is seen as a central issue to this.
It was previously reported the land grabs could come into effect as soon as March.
Last year, the Pan South African Language Board declared ‘land expropriation without compensation’ as the Word of the Year 2018.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took up office in February, has prioritised land redistribution, refusing to listen to warnings of how it could cause foreign investment to plummet.
Speaking at a mining conference in Cape Town this week, Mr Ramaphosa sought to ease investors’ concerns over what could happen to their investments and assets during land reforms.
Assuring them they “need not fear”, he said the expropriation would be undertaken “in a way that promotes economic development and agricultural output”.
He added: “We must emphasise that our approach will enhance, rather than undermine property rights as we seek to address what we have termed the original sin which was committed against black South Africans during colonial and apartheid days.”
Conservative Afrikaner groups are working to raise international awareness of what they call a white genocide taking place in South Africa, where whites make up about 7.8 per cent of the country’s 57.7 million population.
Many of the predominantly white farmers believe race is a factor in brutal rapes and killings.
In August, US President Trump weighed in on the debate, tweeting that he had asked secretary of state Mike Pompeo “to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers”.