Good news South African public! YOU made a difference! Due to the overwhelming response from the public regarding the controversial Bill on the proposed Expropriation Without Compensation (OSV) Bill, and the public’s complaints about the bad timing of the Public Participation Process (PDP) of the OSV Bill, the PDP submission date of public submissions extended from January 31, 2020 to February 29, 2020.
News about EWC. Suggested public hearing dates
Nuus.News Article Summary:
The government has announced their preliminary public hearing dates for the Expropriation Without Compensation Bill (EWC).
They made it clear that Comments should be made on the Bill. It is interesting to know that they also want to inform the church about EWC.
In this article News.News will look at:
1) Participation in public hearings
2) What the government is looking for when they ask for COMMENT on the EWC
3) Whether or not the public should rather ask for a referendum with a 75% majority vote to decide whether to approve or disapprove the EWC. EWC is going to change everything about South Africa and the whole of the public of SA should be given the chance to give their input on EWC and probably not just a few political party leaders who have put forward their own ideas?
4) The government wants to address churches on EWC – what do you need to know.
5) What does the US say about EWC?
6) Find informative videos that summarize the run-up to EWC. (At minimum watch all the videos).
Following our article on the postponement of the EWC proposed bill deadline of January 31 to February 29, 2020, we got the following information from Parliament:-
There will be public hearings on the EWC Bill and the Government invites everyone to make their oral contributions on EWC. This is the public’s chance to voice their opinion on the EWC Bill before the government’s EWC Committee. However, it is not about whether the EWC bill should be declared law or not, since that was already decided in the previous round of the process. So now it’s about what’s in the bill and how the law should be written.
In their letter (click here to read it) they make it clear that the public should not come up with ideas, because they have already formulated their idea (EWC). What the public hearings entail is only “hearing what the public is saying“.
As ambiguous as it may sound, you can read it yourself on the announcement.
The dates of the Public hearings can be found by clicking here.
What News.News can do is refer you back to our first article, which explains that the EWC is a change to the Constitution’s Bill of Rights and that it will need a 75% majority vote to change the Constitution, as outlined by Paul Hoffman (a director of Accountability Now) who explains that the method by which the ANC wants to approve the EWC as legislation is wrong. The ANC wants EWC to be voted in with a 51% majority.
Written submissions should be sent to:
“Written submissions must be received by no later than February 29, 2020. Submissions and inquiries must be directed to Mr V Ramaano, 3rd Floor, 90 Plein Street, Cape Town, 8000 or emailed to section25@parliament.gov.za”
1. Participate in the public hearings
The principle is simple, the more people make submissions to be heard at the public hearings, the better. In the past, the EFF has driven people by bus to public hearings to add as much voice to their point of view. At some hearings, people had to stand in long queues and gave everyone 60 seconds to say their words. So you have to show up early and book your seat early by making an application to Parliament to be heard during the hearings. This is your chance to stand up for what you own.
It is not clear how oral representations are going to be given, and how they will be chosen. It could be that spectators will be chosen randomly or maybe by a request for oral presentation must submitted to V Ramaano. Please contact your local political party representative to make sure you follow the right process.
2. Make YOUR Comment on the EWC:
If you have not already sent your written comments to Parliament electronically, you can do so by pressing the blue button and posting your comments on DearSA’s platform which is directly linked to Parliament. Remember that when commenting, your husband or wife should also comment, and your voting children and your entire family must make their comments individually to increase the number of comments. There is a wealth of people who want to vote for EWC but also a wealth of people who want to vote against EWC. So every voting member of the public should cast their vote individually on the platform.
All submissions received on DearSA are submitted directly to Parliament as individual public participation submissions. The good thing about this is that DearSA maintains an independent record of all public input on the proposed legislation. If the government ignores the public input in the legislative process, DearSA can take the government to court with their database and force the government to take the input into account. It brings a balance to the whole process, which has never been there before.
Dear SA only has 180,000 votes [2020/2/20]. However, that is far from the target of 1 million votes on EWC legislation. Nevertheless, if everyone who voted just made sure their entire family voted, husband and wife and voting eligible children, and another 10 friends, then the target would be easily met.
Note also that the government does not simply want a vote FOR or AGAINST the proposed bill. So if you have previously only made a vote FOR or AGAINST EWC on DearSA, take the time and go back to the website to make sure you also COMMENT on the bill. The government has called for the public to COMMENT on the EWC Bill. So you have to give facts about why the bill should be accepted or not. However, it also gives you a chance in the comment box to ask for a REFERENDUM on the EWC Bill to get the public’s view on EWC. The public should formally state their reasons why they support the EWC bill or not.
Although the government does not want public input on ideas, it is nevertheless interesting that the public was never asked to come up with ideas on how to implement the land reform plan. There was no referendum to hear from the public whether they voted FOR or AGAINST the EWC idea. If the government gives the public a chance to come up with alternative ideas instead of EWC, there will definitely have been an opportunity to come up with alternatives that will satisfy the needs of all stakeholders and bring alternatives to EWC.
3. NEWS.NEWS Question: Call for a public referendum at public hearings?
If the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is to be amended, a 75% majority vote must approve it as legislation. It will be extremely difficult to get a 75% majority vote on EWC.
• How the vote to change the Bill of Rights will be made is a question that must be asked.
• Is it only the political parties and representatives in Parliament who must vote by a 75% majority, or is it possible to hold a public referendum where the general public can be asked to vote to determine whether a 75% majority FOR or AGAINST the EWC bill?
Mmusi Maimane wrote an informative article on the use of referendums in SA’s democracy for Daily Maverick. Click here to read it and find out more about it. (https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2014-07-08-referendums-the-way-to-direct-representation/)
EWC will affect ALL South Africans – not just those who have agricultural land. Even those who have homes in the city will be affected, as will those who have any investments or business in SA. What if sanctions are imposed on SA – everyone will suffer. The same goes with the National Health Insurance (NHI) legislation that the ANC wants to introduce. It is going to sink the country if the ANC brings it in. It does not work in any country in the world, and wherever it was set has had catastrophic consequences and is almost impossible to reverse. Look at the US that now cannot abolish the highly unsuccessful Obamacare.
Whether 75% of all South Africans will vote for EWC will have to be seen. The question is, is it right that the politicians, who play politics for more votes, are making this far-reaching decision on their own or not? The ANC and EFF want to bring the EWC in with a political party vote based on a 51% majority. You will see in the video at the very bottom that the EWC bill has so far only been pushed through with a 51% majority in the legislative process. That does not seem to be right, because this process is about the Bill of Rights and a change to this part of the Constitution should have been approved by a 75% majority and not only a 51% majority.
If a referendum is held, it will be properly monitored by the IEC, which can limit political interference in the process.
The key to this article: EWC needs a 75% majority to change the Constitution. With the correct application of this principle, it can stop EWC.
4. Spiritual Input: March 17, 2020: Public hearing with the Church (SANIFC)
On March 17 there will be a public hearing with the South African National Inter Faith Council representing churches. The date is inconsistent with the government’s statement that the meeting will be held on February 17. So the best thing is to call SANIFC and hear what’s going on. The organization of churches of all faiths, which also owns a lot of land, will also be involved in the hearings. From the parliamentary notice it is unclear whether the church will also be given a chance to give their view on EWC. It just seems that the government wants to inform the church about what they have already planned to do. Nevertheless, let your church know about it and let your church leaders get to with the hearings. The Christian Bible honors private property rights, which must be respected as a supreme authoritative principle and EWC goes against this foundational Christian principle.
Although the government says they will not “grab” the land of the church organizations that own land in SA, the risk exists that it is exactly what will happen if EWC is implemented. Practically we saw what happened in Zimbabwe, when the government took the people’s land and the whole country became cursed because of it. It is common knowledge that the Zimbabwe government’s Central Intelligence Officers (CIOs) are now closely monitoring churches to make sure they are not preaching against the government. The government has also tried to stop church growth in Zimbabwe with their new registration laws: it now costs a church in the region of US $ 5000 to register a church in Zim, something most churches cannot afford because the country now are poor and plunged into constant famine.
So to stop the same persecution of the church in SA, the church MUST provide proper input on the EWC public hearings. “Prevention is better than cure”. If the church does not get up now, it may be too late. Legal experts know that it is almost impossible to change an act already promulgated as a law. So it is better to stop unwanted legislation immediately before enacting it as legislation. So make sure YOUR church and YOUR Reverend / Pastor / Church leaders actively participate in public hearings. Submit your submissions in time to Parliament as requested in the Notice issued.
5. United States of America comments on the ANC's proposed EWC:
Earlier this week, Monday 17 February 2020, America’s Secretary of State, Mr. Mike Pompeo, openly warned the South African government about EWC. He made it clear that the government’s plan to expropriate property without compensation would send the country into disaster. During his visit to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, he said the policy proposal is an example of centralized planning that failed in other African states such as Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Here are some news stories that reached the world in follow up to his remark.
:South Africa’s Plan to Seize Land Would Be a Disaster for the Economy, Pompeo Says (Bloomberg)
- Mike Pompeo hits out at SA land expropriation without compensation (Daily Maverick)
- Pompeo Says South Africa Land Seizures Would Be ‘Disastrous’ (The New York Times)
- Pompeo caps three-nation Africa tour with veiled swipe at … (www.aljazeera.com)
- South Africa’s plan to seize land would be a disaster for the … (engineeringnews.co.za)
- Pompeo says South Africa land seizures would be ‘disastrous … (www.thenewstribune.com)
- Pompeo closes Africa tour with warning about … – France 24 (www.france24.com)
- Pompeo closes Africa tour with warning about … – Bangkok Post (www.bangkokpost.com)
- Pompeo: South Africa land reform plan would be ”disastrous” (www.outlookindia.com)
America is clearly not in favor of EWC, and will hit South Africa with sanctions and withdraw all aid to SA if EWC is brought in, just as with Zimbabwe. Worldwide, private property is the most important “rule of law” that investors look for before investing in a country. If property rights are tampered with, international investors are the first to withdraw.
6. EWC videos:
Where it all started: See how the ANC supports the EFF in terms of EWC the moment the decision was made in 2018 to approve the EWC report. It's a majority but is it a 75% majority?
“Land cannot belong to the people and the state”: Rev. Kenneth Meshoe of the ACDP votes against the proposed EWC Bill together with the DA and the Freedom Front Plus
It is interesting to know that the EFF wants to nationalize all land- that the State takes over all land rights. Hear what Rev. Meshoe says.
The moment the ANC wanted to touch the first farmers' land in 2018, the entire world's media was aimed at SA. See the Fox News news report. Fox News has 100 million followers in America and around the world. The whole world saw what is happening in South Africa.
It is also interesting to note that the ANC immediately stopped their EWC just when America started to find out about it and started investigating it. Suddenly the ANC started following processes and that is when the EWC bill process rush started.
Note in the interview that it is mentioned that America will cease trading with South Africa if property rights are no longer respected. See what Marian Tupy, an analyst at the world renowned Cato Institute had to say about the case:
“[The]South African government needs to be aware that the law, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, under which South Africa trades with the United States, requires the President of the United States to expel countries from AGOA that do not respect property rights and due process. So the South African government needs to be aware that if it changes the Constitution and legalizes what is essentially theft of private property it will be kicked out of AGOA and further negative economic consequences will ensue.”
Marian also uses Zimbabwe as a beacon to show what the EWC will result in, should it be voted into legislation. Watch the video below:
WATCH: the i24News report of 2018 on EWC in the run-up to the proposed legislation, followed by the discussion of the impact of EWC on Zimbabwe and then note Julius Malema from the EFF's quote that:
"we have not called for the killing of white people, at least not for now, but that I can't guarantee the future".
NEWS.NEWS calls on the church in South Africa to stand up to the drastic negative events currently taking place in South Africa. Do not let the church remain silent this time. When the church stands up in unity it will change the face of South Africa.
If you are on a prayer group or would like to get your church involved in a nationwide movement in which the church is standing up, please leave your details on the News.News contact page. Put your congregation’s details in the comment section. Someone will contact you with more information. The Good News in all these uncertainties is that, as the church prays, miracles happen and circumstances change. When the Church applies the Word, Good will prevail. Acts 12: 5-11. The sooner the Church wakes up and rises to the occasion the better.
Keep coming back to News.News as we will expose more in depth details regarding the proposed EWC Bill.
In the meantime, you can learn more about News. News on our launch website:
You can also find relevant current news articles by clicking on the menus at the top of the web page.
News.News we bring you news that the mainstream media will never bring you.
