The Expropriation Bill is again to be debated in parliament, with written submissions due by the end of February. Like actors in a well-rehearsed play, across society people take up predictable positions, both for and against. Among those leading the charge against the bill is the Institute of Race Relations which, having for years produced useful data, now contributes to preserving economic inequality.
Expropriation itself is not controversial. The state expropriates as a matter of course in SA — but for limited purposes of obtaining land for public use. This could be for roads, dams, schools or other infrastructure. The government’s steadfast refusal to expropriate, despite the constitution’s permission, amounts to what my former colleague Edward Lahiff termed a “landowner veto” on the process of land reform. What this means is that where two sets of property rights conflict — those of the owner and those of the dispossessed — the right of the person who possesses the property will always trump everyone else’s, including those who were unfairly dispossessed of the same land in the past.
The state has 20 days to accept or reject the owner’s request and offer compensation, providing full details of its reasons for its compensation offer . The owner has 40 days to indicate if they are in agreement. The state then decides whether or not to proceed, and in a “reasonable time” publish a notice of expropriation in the government gazette. After gazetting the owner has 20 days to accept or reject. Then expropriation may or may not proceed.
All this attention to property owners deflects from the real politics of land, expropriation and redistribution. The problem is not the state’s power to expropriate, but rather the power of citizens to hold the state to account — and force its hand to use its expropriatory powers to acquire land and redistribute it to those who need it most. The main risk with this bill is that after all these years in the making, once enacted the state won’t use it.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.