- The purpose of the bill is to amend section 25 of the constitution so as to provide that the right to property may be limited in such a way that where land is expropriated for land reform, the amount of compensation payable may be nil.
- Further, it aims to clarify that such limitation is a legitimate option for land reform, to address historic wrongs caused by the arbitrary dispossession of land, and in so doing ensure equitable access to land and further empower the majority of South Africans to be productive participants in ownership, food security and agricultural reform programmes.
- Section 25 (2) (b) says property may be expropriated only in terms of the law of general application subject to compensation, the amount of which and the time and manner of payment of which have either been agreed to by those affected or decided or approved by a court.
- The committee has added this line: “Provided that in accordance with subsection (3A) a court may, where land and any improvements thereon are expropriated for the purposes of land reform, determine that the amount of compensation is nil.’’
- Another proposed clause reads: “National legislation must … set out specific circumstances where a court may determine that the amount of compensation is nil.”
- But parties opposed to the amendments called for the specific circumstances in which expropriation of land would be without compensation to be set out in the constitution and not in a general law of application as proposed by the bill.
- Opposition MPs said it was important to state in the constitution the circumstances under which compensation could be nil, saying this was not the kind of subject matter that could be left to legislation of general application.
- Committee chairperson Mathole Motshekga tacitly admitted that the process was being rushed because of fears that the public would lose patience with a delayed process.