Chronicle Editor
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the Expropriation Bill into law, which provides for the expropriation of land with nil compensation.
The law also seeks to provide for certain instances where expropriation with nil compensation may be appropriate in the public interest.
Pushing for the adoption of the law during a sitting of the National Assembly in September 2022, then-public works minister Patricia de Lille said expropriation was only one acquisition mechanism that, in appropriate cases, for the public interest, would enable land reform and redress.
It was opposed by, among others, the DA, IFP and FF Plus, which are now part of the government of national unity.
Announcing the signing of the bill, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said: “The bill, which has undergone a five-year process of public consultation and parliamentary deliberation, aligns legislation on expropriation with the Constitution.
“Section 25 of the Constitution recognises expropriation as an essential mechanism for the state to acquire someone’s property for a public purpose or in the public interest, subject to just and equitable compensation being paid.”
Magwenya added up to now, expropriation of property had been governed in terms of the Expropriation Act of 1975, which predated the expropriation mechanism provided for in the new law that repealed the pre-democratic Expropriation Act of 1975.
Online Reporter