The eviction of farmers from their profitable farming enterprises by “rogue officials” of the department of agriculture, rural development & land reform has resulted in claims of more than R2bn being instituted against the department, according to the 2019/2020 report of the auditor-general.

The partnership-driven model for land reform (the “Karaan Plan”) has been the most successful plan to create a class of profitable black farmers since it was introduced in 2013 and it is also being applied widely elsewhere in Africa.

SA’s major property industry associations have warned that expropriation without compensation will compound the dire financial situation of many municipalities, potentially bringing service delivery to a standstill.

“Expropriation is not restricted to farmland; it extends to all forms of property, including movable property and intellectual property,” said AfriForum strategy and campaign officer Ernst van Zyl on the first day of the parliamentary public hearings on the Expropriation Bill.

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.

In 2019, the Parliamentary Advisory Panel on Land Reform advised the President that the old Expropriation Act No. 63 of 1975 (the 1975 Act) was unconstitutional and in conflict with section 25 of the Constitution of South Africa.

According to the prevailing official narrative, little if anything is more important than ‘the land question’.

Last month, a former Zimbabwean cabinet minister was arrested for illegally selling parcels of state land.

This weekend, I read on the making of the interim Constitution and the multi-party negotiations in the early 1990s. Keeping a close look at the current amendment process, I have learned that making a Constitution is a messy process.

Chapter 6 of the National Development Plan (NDP) sets out the parameters for an integrated and inclusive rural economy.

Expropriation of property at below market value or with nil compensation looms large for all property owners, investors and savers in South Africa.

For a country desperate for higher rates of investment to ignite sustainable economic growth, the Expropriation Bill, and the headlines that have accompanied its passage through parliament’s consultation processes, could not have been more poorly timed.

The department of agriculture, land reform & rural development, agribusinesses and various social partners have been hard at work for months crafting the agricultural and agro-processing master plan and, separately, blended finance instruments.

Much political, legislative and administrative time has been consumed by debate over expropriation without compensation, but it is worth recalling that in 1997 the ANC’s land reform policy was formulated along three pillars: restitution, redistribution and land reform.

The Expropriation Without Compensation Bill, currently before Parliament, has the potential of devastating the South African economy.

South Africa continues to grapple with land reform challenges.

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:

The Ad Hoc Committee tasked with drafting an amendment to section 25 of the Constitution published the Eighteenth Constitutional Amendment Bill for public comments late in 2019 and Agbiz submitted inputs in February 2020.

Bekezela Phakathi’s report on expropriation without compensation (EWC) and banking opens up an important assessment of the long-term prospects for SA’s private sector financial institutions (“Expropriation without compensation will not collapse banks, says Ngcukaitobi”, April 20).

Uit die kommentaar by die openbare verhore van die Portefeuljekomitee vir Openbare Werke en Infrastruktuur oor die Onteieningswet is dit duidelik dat deelnemers geen idee het oor die implikasies van dié wet nie