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Draft land laws 'not a threat to foreign investors', says Nzimande Khulekani Magubane, Business Day, Johannesburg, 8 March 2015 The South African Communist Party (SACP) on Sunday accused foreign companies of undermining South Africa's sovereignty as it defended a series of draft laws recently described as unpopular with foreign investors. The remarks by the SACP - a member of the governing tripartite alliance headed by the African National Congress - came after the American Chamber of Commerce's executive director in SA Carol O'Brien bemoaned draft policies such as the Expropriation Bill, Protection of Investment Bill and the proposed 12,000 ha cap on foreign land ownership. She told Business Day recently that these draft bills left the 250 American companies operating in SA concerned and made them wonder whether foreign investment was welcome in the country. The Expropriation Bill is aimed at establishing the office of a value general to value properties earmarked for expropriation. The Protection of Investment Bill is aimed at establishing an investment protection regime to replace SA's terminated bilateral investment treaties. SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande - who is also minister of higher education - said the government and the SACP did not believe that the policy direction taken through these bills was a threat to foreign investors. "Some foreign investors might have issues with land ownership but some countries do not allow foreigners to own any land. But we believe many investors don't see this as an obstacle," Mr Nzimande said. SACP deputy secretary-general - and deputy minister of public works - Jeremy Cronin said there were "powerful interests" among elite foreign investors looking to "run roughshod" over SA's legislative process and thereby undermine the country's sovereignty to block laws which they believed would harm their businesses. "The Expropriation Bill is about making expropriation process consistent with the constitution, but foreign players don't want that to be adjudicated by our own sovereign courts but in an unelected technical committee somewhere in Washington or somewhere in Brussels. We have to defend Parliament and our ability to define policy," Mr Cronin said. The SACP leaders also weighed in on strife laden labour federation the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The federation opened its Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting last week amid speculation that it is headed for a damaging split. Ructions between the federation's leadership and its troubled secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi have led to COSATU losing its biggest affiliate in terms of membership, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA. Mr Nzimande cautioned against Mr Vavi and the seven unions which support him against boycotting the CEC meeting. "We don't think standing outside the CEC is going to be very helpful in addressing the matter. Is a split imminent? We hope not. The majority of unions are within the fold and work must continue and we emphasise the need for unity," he said. With Linda Ensor From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/agriculture/2015/03/08/draft-land-laws-not- a-threat-to-foreign-investors-says-nzimande -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
