EXPROPRIATON BILL: CONCERNS RAISED IN TWO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEES

EXPROPRIATON BILL: CONCERNS RAISED IN TWO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEES

• 01 August 2024
• Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development
• SA Legal Academy

Concerns about the fate of the controversial Expropriation Bill surfaced recently during two separate National Assembly committee meetings. This is noting that the Bill was passed by Parliament on 27 March 2024 but has yet to be signed into law.

As has been widely reported, once enacted and operationalised this proposed new piece of legislation will:

• regulate the procedures entailed in fixed property expropriation for a public purpose or in the public interest
• regulate the payment of compensation, and
• in specific circumstances deemed just and equitable, allow nil compensation for expropriation expressly for a public purpose and in the public interest.

The following information is drawn directly from Parliamentary Monitoring Group audio recordings of the proceedings of each meeting.

During a meeting of the Public Works & Infrastructure Committee held to consider its predecessor’s legacy report, considerable discussion took place about a perceived delay in signing the Expropriation Bill into law. During this discussion it became apparent that the possibility of the Bill being returned to Parliament cannot be ruled out. This was noting that, despite every effort made by the previous committee to comply with its constitutional obligations regarding public participation and to adhere to the various parliamentary rules on processing legislation:

• according to committee secretary Nola Matinise, these rules were found not to deal expressly with certain situations that arose duirng the NCOP committee and provincial legislature process on aspects of a version of the Bill passed by the National Assembly
• interventions were required to deal with the implications of the previous National Assembly committee possibly not concurring with amendments proposed by the NCOP (to avoid the Bill being sent for mediation), and
• the methodology used in processing public comments on the tabled Bill may have been flawed, especially given the thousands that had been received electronically, orally during public hearings, in formal written submissions and in oral representations during parliamentary hearings.

During a similar meeting, the newly established Land Reform & Rural Development Committee was briefed on ‘key’ Department of Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development programmes of special interest to members given the focus of their mandate. These included:

• land redistribution
• land restitution
• land tenure, and
• communal land, communal property associations and the role of traditional leaders.

In that context, a comprehensive presentation from  committee content adviser, Tshililo Manenzhe, identified a need for:

• further amendments to the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 1997 (to limit the risk of homelessness following immediate legal eviction; and to strengthen existing measures to protect the families of labour tenants whose employment is legally terminated)
• legislation to replace the Communal Land Tenure Act, 2004, which was declared unconstitutional and invalid in 2010, and
• a Land Redistribution Bill, which was expected to have been tabled during the previous Parliament.

Reference was made to the Land Expropriation Bill only in relation to:

• the disadvantages experienced by government with the prevailing ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ approach to land acquisition, and
• the ongoing debate on the possibly unforeseen consequences of providing in law for land expropriation without compensation.

However, no meaningful discussion took place.

• Expropriation Bill’s ‘D’ version now waiting to be signed into law
• presentation to National Assembly Land Reform & Rural Development Committee on key issues

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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