Legislation: Mixed messages on ‘new Expropriation Bill’ process

Reports that ‘a new Expropriation Bill’ will be tabled in Parliament within ‘the next two months’ (Fin24) tend to fly in the face of a process meticulously spelled out by Public Works Deputy Minister Jeremy Cronin last month, during a meeting of the National Assembly’s Public Works Committee, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. The process was confirmed on 5 September in a media statement issued by the office of the ANC’s Chief Whip, Jackson Mthembu, welcoming the withdrawal of the 2015 Expropriation Bill. According to the statement, the legislature will now ‘focus’ on the Joint Constitutional Review Committee process, as Legalbrief Today has regularly reported. At the time, it was made very clear that the Bill will only be re-introduced on conclusion of this process. Committee co-chair Lewis Nzimande expects Parliament to have voted by next May on proposals for amending the Constitution (Rapport), as Legalbrief Today has also reported.

What the Deputy Minister may well have in mind is the release of a draft Bill within the next two months for public comment. During last month’s National Assembly Public Works Committee meeting, he emphasised the importance of sending a ‘clear signal’ to people ‘genuinely worried’ about the possibility of ‘Zimbabwe-style’ land grabs that the expropriation of land without compensation will only occur under ‘specific conditions’ rendering the use of such a measure ‘just and equitable’ – in keeping with section 36(1) of the Constitution. A draft Bill prescribing the procedures to be followed in circumstances where land expropriation may take place without compensation would accomplish that. Monday’s Fin24 article referred to ‘light touch legislation’ aimed at preventing the ‘arbitrary deprivation’ of property. It also hinted at the type of land and property likely to be targeted, including ‘abandoned buildings, unutilised land, commercial property held unproductively and purely for speculative purposes, underutilised property owned by the state, and land farmed by labour tenants with an absentee titleholder’.