Committee resolves to finalise Expropriation Bill in February 2024
7 December 2023
The Select Committee on Transport, Public Service and Administration, Public Works and Infrastructure has considered and adopted the Economic Regulation of Transport (ERT) Bill and resolved to finalise the Expropriation Bill in February 2024 to allow for further consultation.
The committee considered the Negotiating Mandates on the Expropriation Bill yesterday. The Parliamentary Legal Services presented the committees’ proposed amendments (C-list), which addressed a number of concerns that were raised on the Bill, particularly the proposed negotiating mandates from the provinces. The C-list mainly proposes amendments to Clause 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 15, 19, 22, 2, including general amendments.
The committee could not proceed with the adoption of the C-list on the Expropriation Bill at yesterday’s meeting, as the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure requested further consultations on Clause 20, which deals with matters around Urgent Expropriation.
The committee resolved to finalise the Bill in February 2024 to allow for the integrated Bill to be sent to the provinces for the conferral of final mandates. Committee Chairperson, Mr Mosomanegare Mmoiemang said, “It makes sense for the committee to grant the department more time to finalise Clause 20 to strengthen the Bill and to ensure that it is Constitutional.”
The Expropriation Bill seeks to, among other things, provide for the expropriation of property for a public purpose or in the public interest and to regulate the procedure for such expropriation of property, including payment of compensation, identifying certain instances where the provision of no compensation may be just and equitable for expropriation in the public interest and to repeal the Expropriation Act of 1975.
Meanwhile, the committee considered and adopted the ERT Bill yesterday. The ERT Bill was passed by the National Assembly (NA) and sent to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence on 27 September 2022. This was done in compliance with section 76 of the Constitution, which states that ordinary bills that affect provinces are introduced either in the NA or NCOP and must be considered by both Houses. In the NCOP, votes are done by provincial delegations and at least five provinces should vote in favour of a bill before it is agreed to. Bills are usually considered by a provincial committee, which may hold public hearings on the bill for comments and suggestions.
The ERT Bill seeks to consolidate the economic regulation of transport within a single framework and policy and establish the Transport Economic Regulator, and the Transport Economic Council, among others.
The committee received a briefing on the ERT Bill on 8 February 2023. This was followed by an extensive public consultation process, including the publishing of advertisements in the media on 26 March 2023 calling for written submissions on the Bill with a deadline of 24 April 2023. Public hearings were held on 7 June 2023 and on 6 and 20 September 2023. The committee then called the Department of Transport to address concerns raised in the oral and written submissions of the public and stakeholders.
In compliance with Section 76 of the Constitution, the committee considered the negotiating mandates on the Bill on 08 November 2023 and 22 November 2023, as received from Provinces and adopted the C-list of agreed amendments to the Bill.
The nine provinces submitted their final mandates on the Bill at yesterday’s meeting, which were considered by the Committee. Eight provinces voted in favour and the Western Cape is the only province that did not support it. In terms of committee votes, the Bill was supported by six members, with no rejections and three abstentions. The Bill will be sent to the NCOP for consideration.
Issued by Malentsoe Magwagwa, Media Officer, Parliament, 7 December 2023
