Cape Town - The passing of the Expropriation Bill in the National Assembly yesterday could pave the way for land claimants to get their land back without the need for government to compensate the current owners.
Ruth Hall, of UWC’s Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, welcomed the bill, saying President Jacob Zuma had to enact it before the local government elections.
“It’s necessary that we have this new act because there has been a contradiction between our old expropriation act of 1975, the old apartheid act and our constitution,” said Hall.
Until now the Expropriation Act had not provided for expropriation to acquire property for private citizens.
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“Now this bill brings the legislation in line with the constitution. If you were chucked out under the Group Areas Act and you weren’t formally expropriated… the state should not pay market value, it should take into account the wider social interest.
“Now, if a poor community is going to be expropriated because they want to build a mine, maybe market prices is not enough for what they are going to be losing,” said Hall.
Zuma is expected to assent to the bill in the coming weeks.
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The ANC’s 208 MPs ensured the bill was adopted by the National Assembly against seven votes from the DA.
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu said the court would be the final arbiter if the expropriated party was not happy with the compensation.
The DA, UDM, FF Plus and the ACDP opposed the bill. Anchen Dreyer, of the DA, said the bill in its current form would scare off investors.
Steve Swart, of the ACDP, said it objected because the bill did not only threaten the farming sector, but banks, businesses and other commercial enterprises.
But Celiwe Madlopha, of the ANC, said this bill would take many people out of poverty. “The opposition always grandstands when they come here.
“What they are doing is not supporting small-scale farmers.”
CAPE TIMES