The leading South African opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has filed a lawsuit in a provincial court against the Expropriation Act, which U.S. President Donald Trump criticized in an executive order last week.
As Breitbart News reported, Trump issued an executive order suspending aid to South Africa over its legislation allowing expropriation of property without compensation, as well as its attacks on Israel and support for Iran.
On Monday, the DA announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the Expropriation Act. From News24.com:
The DA has ramped up its efforts to challenge the Expropriation Act and has filed court papers in the Western Cape High Court of South Africa.
DA Federal Council Chairperson, Helen Zille announced in a statement on Monday.
Zille said the Expropriation Act, which president Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed into law, is unconstitutional, both substantively and procedurally.
A statement on the DA website went into greater detail (original emphasis):
We reject this Act, because we believe that no government in a democratic country should be given such sweeping powers to expropriate property without compensation.
We have not forgotten that the apartheid government used similar powers to forcibly remove communities from their land, often with inadequate compensation or none at all. This history teaches us that true redress requires protecting property rights, ensuring that no government is ever given unchecked expropriation powers ever again.
…
Policy uncertainty about a state’s ability to protect property rights is a significant deterrent to domestic and foreign investment. It will ultimately throttle economic growth and kill jobs.
The statement did not refer to Trump, and the DA has opposed the legislation for several years, but his criticism has rocked South African politics.
The DA is currently in a coalition with the country’s largest party, the African National Congress (ANC), at a national level. The fight over expropriation has increased tensions within the coalition.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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