‘Take the property of others, but not mine’

Expropriation without compensation is a great idea – if it happens to someone else.

That is one of the key findings of an opinion poll released on Wednesday by the Institute of Race Relations.

The poll‚ dubbed The Criterion Report‚ found that “support for expropriation without compensation collapses when [people] are asked whether the government should be able to take land they own”.

“Ninety percent of voters are opposed to this.”

The IRR questioned 978 people by telephone‚ and in its first set of results earlier this week it said the EFF had doubled its support to 13% while the ANC had dropped from 62% to 52%.

In the first of its quarterly surveys‚ the institute found that more than a quarter of voters (27%) had not even heard of expropriation without compensation.

Among those who had‚ 41% opposed it‚ 30% supported it‚ 51% believed an alternative should be found and 17% said no land reform was needed.

IRR politics and governance head Gareth van Onselen said there was a “stark disjuncture” between blacks and “minority” voters when asked about “taking land from whites without paying”.

“Some 37% of blacks but only 3% of whites backed [it].

“However‚ there is stronger support across demographics for an alternative approach‚ either willing buyer-willing seller or the redistribution of government land.”

More than a third of black voters (37%) said all land should be government-owned, but just 9% of minority voters.