How should the world respond to South Africa’s illiberal turn?

South Africa’s government is embarking on a truly dangerous course.

According to press reports, the state has now begun the process of expropriating of privately-owned farmland without financial compensation, thereby ignoring the post-apartheid political settlement, which allows for land redistribution in the country only on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis.

The owners of Akkerland Boerdery, a game farm in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, have been served with an eviction notice after they and the government failed to agree on a mutually acceptable sale price. “What makes the Akkerland case unique,” noted AgriSA union spokeswoman Annelize Crosby, “is that they apparently were not given the opportunity to first dispute the claim in court, as the law requires”.

Meanwhile, the government has announced its intention to amend the constitution to allow expropriation of privately-owned land without any financial compensation whatsoever. Make no mistake, these moves have the potential to destroy Africa’s most sophisticated economy and make the majority of its 58 million people destitute.

Eighteen years ago, Zimbabwe embraced a similar set of policies and saw its economy collapse and the country descend into penury and political violence. The laws of economics being universal, there is every likelihood the Zimbabwean scenario will repeat itself in South Africa.

An attack on property rights will result in the destruction of South Africa’s farming community, a dramatic reduction in agricultural productivity and mass unemployment. It could also lead to the collapse of the banking sector (which depends on land as collateral for loan-making) and the Rand along with hyperinflation, and potentially even bloodshed.