Wave of Oppression

When an authority creates unjust laws, it is the duty of the just to oppose such laws. As such, it is also the duty to try ones utmost hardest to stop these laws from coming into being. There comes a time in all societies when an authority will get to a stage of audacity so harsh that they blatantly wish to destroy the liberty of its people. Never has this been so obvious in the new South Africa.

Two recent bills threaten our rights - first the Licensing of Business Bill and now the Expropriation Bill. The former threatens to devastate our already devastated economy through the creation of even more unnecessary bureaucracy that does not only slow down honest business, but will inevitably feed corruption.

The Business Bill has received nothing but negative responses, with the Chamber of Commerce and South African Institute of Race Relations condemning it outright. The bill is badly constructed, ill thought out and can have no practical positive results.

If that was not bad enough, a new bill, dubbed ‘the Expropriation Bill’ has surfaced, giving the state further power to expropriate land for ‘public interest’. Eminent domain laws themselves are a gross violation of our property rights, but this bill itself, regardless of supposed intentions, is an outrage.

No one entity, or any entity for that matter, should have the power to take the justly earned property or wealth of anyone. Even if in state interest, the right to property is more sacred than government authority.

Society and law was constructed to defend property rights, not spit on them and state that you can only own something because the government does not care enough to take it from you yet.

Both these bills are an atrocity to even be proposed. As South Africans, we are usually complacent and even apathetic in the face of oppression, but this must change. Our country is limping, but these bills will cripple us!

Eventually, these bills will most probably pass regardless of what we do as a populace, but that does not mean we should give up! Even the impossible should be attempted just to see if the difficulty is merely an illusion. What we need the government to see is defiance! We need them to know that we won’t stand idly anymore.

As a people, we must stand against oppression as we did before. They may seem like mere paper, but these papers have the power to destroy our economy and our rights. Stand fast and defy these bills, if only to prove that we won’t take it anymore.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/04/29/threat-to-property

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-04-29-state-and-private-sector-to-clash-over-business-bill