Land expropriation without compensation in South Africa: A chronological update
It was during its 54th National Elective Conference in December 2017 (ANC 54) at Nasrec, the same conference that resulted in the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as the new President of the organization, that the ruling African National Conference (ANC) also elected to pursue land expropriation without compensation as a policy option. The ANC, however, made it clear that it would ensure that this policy would not be to the detriment of future investment in the economy, cause harm to the country’s agricultural production and food security, nor undermine other sectors of the economy.
The land issue was discussed on the last day of ANC 54, when the organization held its economic commission. The ANC’s chair of the economic transformation committee had then announced that the National Executive Committee (NEC) would initiate amendments to Section 25 of the Constitution in order to make allowance for expropriation without compensation. He also made it known the ANC had attached qualifications to the resolution, and that the ANC would not be pursuing to expropriate all property. Despite the announcement, the ANC had not provided time frames, nor many specifics at the time. This, as we know, was part of what promoted the environment of high uncertainty, with much speculation that contributed to the lowered business confidence that is likely to have led to the successive contractions in quarterly gross fixed capital formation in 2018.
Yet, amending the constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation was originally championed by the opposition party – the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF), which is led by former ANC youth league president, Julius Malema. On February 27, 2018, the EFF moved that the National Assembly establish an ad hoc committee to review and amend Section 25 of the Constitution. This was to make what was implicit in the section explicit – to allow for expropriation without compensation. Even before the issue was taken up by the ANC, it was the EFF that first brought it up.
This has had the ANC on the back foot, which has also led to a protracted period of uncertainty regarding the matter, since it was announced by the ANC in December 2017. On tabling the motion in February 2018, the EFF also called for the nationalization of land, i.e. for the state to become “custodian of all land”. But, although the motion was supported by the ANC, it was with a number of modifications and conditions that were in line with the outcomes of the ANC 54. Also, the proposal for nationalization of land was scrapped. In effect, this moved the process from the political sphere into the legislative domain, placing it at the door of the Parliament.
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