Warnings that proposals to amend South Africa’s Constitution to facilitate land expropriation and transfer wealth to the have-nots will damage the country have fallen on deaf ears.

Effective land reform is still required, but the Draft Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill of 2019 (the Draft Bill) will needlessly undermine the property rights of all South Africans: from the 1 million whites with home ownership to the 8.5 million black, ‘coloured’ and Indian families who own houses too.

In a recent Investment Research Note put out by Nedbank Private Wealth, political analyst JP Landman claims to be ‘cutting through the noise’ surrounding the draft constitutional amendment bill introducing expropriation without compensation (EWC). However, his analysis is fundamentally flawed.

Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson on agriculture and rural development Jacques Smalle has slammed the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform, saying “the people of Limpopo cannot rely on the department to expedite and effectively manage land reform in Limpopo”.

The winter of 2020 is 2 months away and it's almost time to get the winter wheat in production-

In recent years, the ongoing land debate in South Africa has been drawing a lot of the world’s attention.

Parliamentarians are greatly concerned that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has had to slice some R2.4 billion from its R16.8 billion budget.

Volkswagen has finally launched the 190 kW version of its Amarok V6 in South Africa. So, we thought it prudent to update our list of the country’s most expensive double-cab bakkies.

Land reform is central to South Africa's quest for social justice. During the apartheid era, land was concentrated in the hands of the white minority.

.  Meeting the aspirations of land reform beneficiaries while ensuring the preservation of land located in heritage sites remains a fairly complex process.

At the beginning of October, the department of public works and infrastructure published the Expropriation Bill in the Government Gazette along with an explanatory memorandum.

Optimism is probably South Africans’ most ironic quality — and an asset you would imagine it would be foolish to take for granted.

As a land reform practitioner of several decades, my first reaction to the news that the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development was intending to release state-owned land on the basis of long-term leases was one of incredulity. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa has often stressed that there will be no ‘land grabs’ in South Africa. But the pending constitutional amendment bill to allow expropriation without compensation (EWC) and the new Expropriation Bill of 2020 will ensure that the government becomes the biggest land grabber of all.

When South Africa officially became a constitutional democracy in South Africa on 4 February 1997 it heralded profound change in the way the country is governed.

Last week my colleague Anthea Jeffery reminded us that the deputy president, David Mabuza, had said that the Expropriation Bill currently before Parliament was necessary to ‘address the injustices of the past and restore land rights’.

Parliament’s ad hoc committee tasked with finalising the expropriation of land without compensation issue is on track to table a bill on the proposed amendments to the constitution by March.

On 6 February land activists convened for the third episode of the expropriation bill webinar discussions, hosted by Siviwe Mdoda of the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education, to answer the question, “Unregistered land rights: does the Expropriation Bill provide enough?”

The government and other commentators – in describing the Expropriation Bill of 2020 as ‘a good piece of legislation’ which ‘carefully circumscribes’ the powers of the state – have thoroughly muddied the waters surrounding the measure. 

Money makes the world go round, but what happens when expropriation without compensation (EWC) whirls it the other way? South Africa’s financial sector is about to find out.