# Summary

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/constitution-eighteenth-amendment-bill/summary/
- Published: 2019-12-05T12:34:28+02:00
- Author: dearSA

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[ PROVIDE YOUR INPUT ON THE AMENDMENT BILL](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/constitution-eighteenth-amendment-bill/)

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 * 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.