South Africa is said to be at crossroads – for lack of a better expression. This is due to the recently voted Constitutional Review Committee‘s report in parliament on the constitutional amendment for expropriation of land without compensation – a motion adopted in February and voted in December 2018.

Greater certainty on the content of the imminent change to the wording of Section 25 of the Constitution to give explicit meaning to the state’s power to expropriate property without compensation has emerged after a week of often heated debate and input in parliament.

Last week the Ad Hoc Committee responsible for drafting an expropriation-without- compensation (EWC) constitutional amendment bill (the EWC Bill) invited three ministers, including minister of mineral resources and energy Gwede Mantashe, to put forward their comments on its draft to date.  

In the official announcement, land expropriation committee chairperson Dr Mathole Motshekga said this clears the way for the committee to start engaging and deliberating on the “wording and format” of the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill. He continued:

Expropriation Without Compensation – have South Africa’s citizens merely dodged the bullet? 

The Expropriation Bill is currently before the Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure.

South Africa’s National Assembly passed a bill on Sept. 28 that would allow the government to seize land without paying the owners, a practice known as ‘expropriation without compensation.’

In a well-meaning and thoughtful piece (‘Putting the Expropriation Bill into perspective – it’s not the ugly ogre some make it out to be’) Annelize Crosby argues in the Daily Maverick that many of the concerns with the 2020 Expropriation Bill are overblown.

The executive order of Donald Trump to terminate American aid funding for South Africa is a grave distortion of the law and of history.

The nature and history of the African National Congress (ANC) cannot be discounted when reading the text of the new Expropriation Act.

South Africa is a global example of how not to redistribute land. It’s a failure.

The debate on land reform in South Africa does seem like a case of the same proposals coming around again and again.

Last week a case-study of mine on expropriation without compensation in South Africa appeared in the 2025 International Property Rights Index. This column is a summary of that study, which can be read in full here.