Investors rattled by the drive to expropriate land without compensation will only likely know the final details of the proposed amendment to section 25 of the constitution or the property clause at the end of June.

This is pursued through two distinct processes: an amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution, and the new Expropriation Bill to replace the Act of 1975, which has been in the making for a couple of years.

One of the common expressions of derision in our political lexicon is the ‘tickbox exercise’.

Section 25 of the Bill of Rights – Chapter 2 of our supreme law, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa – sets out the parameters within which the right to property is respected and protected by the state.

The Draft Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill is so damaging that it must simply be abandoned.

Response written by Mark Philip Malcolm Horn - London Barrister. * No one does business with a thief, and no one extends credit to a thief.

The failure of the ANC and EFF to agree on the form of the proposed amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution has led some optimists to conclude that this is the moment in which the EFF is isolated and abandoned. 

The government is working with the agricultural sector to support and manage address challenges that women face in the industry, agriculture, land reform and rural development minister Thoko Didiza said.

In 2020, the South African government approved a women empowerment policy proposing that roughly 50% of the allocation of agricultural farming land under the Redistribution Programme should be for women, 40% for youth, and 10% for people living with disabilities.

Public discussion around the proposed amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution – in pursuit of Expropriation without Compensation (EWC) – has not been limited to the substance of the changes, or to their probable impact. 

Government’s proposed land expropriation without compensation initiative threatens to jeopardise food security, dissuade investment and will have a profoundly negative impact on South Africa’s economy.

It’s been an eventful week on the Expropriation without Compensation front.

Now that the Constitutional Court has ruled that the local government election must be held between 27th October and 1st November 2021, parliamentary proceedings are to be paused from (10th September) until 2nd November (after the local poll). 

Now that the Constitution 18th Amendment Bill has been formally tabled and is on the National Assembly’s order paper under “further business”, a few facts need to be highlighted. No biased commentary or speculation.

In September 2021 a new opinion poll commissioned by the IRR showed that only 5% of South Africans think land reform should be one of the two top priorities for the government to address.

It’s now almost 25 years after the end of apartheid and the land question inside Africa’s most powerful economy still remains largely unresolved.

As the year winds down, and with it emotional and intellectual energy, it is important not to forget that politics and governance continues apace.

Communities living on the boundaries of the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, who have lodged land claims on parts of the park, are not happy that a beneficiation scheme that could see them profit from the park's commercial activities is still not finalised almost five years after the settlement of their claims.