According to a presidential statement to this effect, after a process of analysis and consultation that lasted more than five years, the new Law aligns the legislation on expropriations with the current democratic Constitution.

The South African law of laws establishes in its section 25 expropriation as an essential mechanism for the State to acquire someone’s property for a public purpose or in the general interest, subject to the payment of fair and equitable compensation.

According to the report, the new law will help all State organs (local, provincial and national authorities) to expropriate land in the public interest for various reasons.

Local, provincial and national authorities, the presidential statement added, will use this legislation to, among other reasons, promote inclusion and access to natural resources.

Under the terms of this law, the Presidency adds, a competent authority cannot expropriate property arbitrarily or for a purpose that is not in the public interest.

This procedure cannot be carried out unless the expropriating authority has unsuccessfully attempted to reach an agreement with the owner or holder for the acquisition of the property on reasonable terms.

Furthermore, the law provides that disputes be referred to mediation or to the corresponding courts.

However, according to the press today, there are sectors of the population dissatisfied with the new Law because they consider that it does not address the issue of land ownership in a fair manner.

Thus, the chairman of the African Transformation Movement party, Vuyolwethu Zungula, argues that any discussion of land expropriation without compensation must begin with a view to the period beginning on 6 April 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck landed in South Africa.

The cut-off date in terms of some of these laws that have been pushed through by the government, he argues, only begins in 1913, while most of the land ownership by settlers took place before that date.

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