DA representatives to propose amendments to the Expropriation Bill

The Portfolio Committee on Public Works will meet on Tuesday, 29 July 2008 to further deliberate on the Expropriation Bill. Up to now the legislative process has been seriously flawed. Hearings in the provinces were poorly advertised and organized, in what at times appeared to be a deliberate attempt to restrict public participation in the process. In the context of what was a defective and ideologically-driven process, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will continue to ensure that the public's voice is heard on the implications of the Bill, as well as ensure that the Bill is not allowed to undermine efforts at pursuing a just, sustainable and equitable land reform process in South Africa.

The Bill in its current form is unconstitutional, and has a number of unintended consequences which could see it frustrating the very objective it purports to advance - addressing the plight of the poor and the landless.There is a wide range of problem areas in the legislation and the focus of the DA representatives on the committee will be to highlight and amend those serious flaws, which if left untouched will undermine the success of our market economy and further harm the poor and the landless.

Amongst these problems is firstly the fact that the Bill is indiscriminate about whose property may be expropriated. It allows the Minister to expropriate any property for "public purpose or in the public interest". As a result the security of title of all current and future property owners is under threat. Moreover, if left unamended the Bill could lead to the bizarre situation where a community which had been awarded land in terms of a land reform restitution programme finds itself in another legal battle with the Minister of Public Works fighting off the expropriation under this Bill.

Secondly, the only qualification to the minister's wide ranging powers is that she has to show that the expropriation is for a public purpose or in the public interest. But the Bill makes no effort to define what constitutes the public interest, nor does it give her any objective criteria to decide on whether a matter is in the public interest. The public will thus be left to rely on the benevolence of the Minister - a situation that no law should ever create. People will not know when and under what circumstances their properties can be expropriated; the resultant weakening of security of title will lead to reduced domestic and international investment.

To further compound the problems of the Bill, the definition of property in the Bill is so wide as to encompass any form of property. This includes both movable and immovable property. 

The Bill also has manifestly unconstitutional provisions. It allows for the compensation of the expropriated property to be below the market value. This provision is at odds with our Constitution as it does not compel the government to consider the market value when it is determining the compensation after expropriation.

Another clearly unconstitutional provision of the Bill is its curtailment of the right of the affected party to contest the amount of compensation offered to them. The expropriating authority, a party to the matter will now be the only determiner of the compensation. The jurisdiction of the courts to hear expropriation matters and determine the amount of compensation is eroded by the Bill. This is an affront to our Constitution which allows for the courts to hear both the procedure and the substantive fairness of the expropriation and the appropriateness of the compensation.

Lastly the Bill provides for the creation of Expropriation Advisory Board, which must advise on all aspects of expropriation. These boards are to be constituted by people whose qualifications are not defined, and they need not have any knowledge of property sale transactions or economics.

The DA's representatives will vigorously highlight these issues and propose amendments aimed at ensuring that the objectives of clearly sustainable and equitable land ownership in South Africa are not undermined by a short-sighted and disastrous piece of legislation.

Statement issued by Sydney Opperman MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on public works, July 27 2008