The words “land expropriation without compensation” have become common in political discourse over the past few months.

President Ramaphosa spoke at length about the ANC’s plans in his State of the Nation address, and endless news articles talk about the pros and cons of the plan, should it go through.

Despite the constant debate, there is still some confusion as to what exactly it means. People who get their news from Facebook think that they’re going to lose their houses. Other groups are using the idea of land expropriation to stoke racial tension.

To help you develop an informed opinion, here’s Bloomberg with the facts.

The ruling party plans to change the constitution to make it easier to seize land without paying for it. Draft legislation has been introduced that outlines the ways that the party can do this.

The reason behind the need for land expropriation is outlined as an attempt to address the racially skewed land ownership patterns dating back to colonialism and white-minority rule.

Moving on to the constitutional changes:

Lawmakers in both chambers of parliament — the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces — in December approved a committee report that recommends the amendment to section 25 of the constitution, which protects property rights.

Another parliamentary committee was set up on Feb. 12 to draft a bill needed to make the changes and elected ANC MP Thoko Didiza, who served as agriculture minister from 1999 to 2006, as its chairwoman.

The National Assembly will debate whether her committee should continue to work until the date of the election. This debate will happen on March 19.

The other option is that the work will cease for the time being and the new parliament will take it up again after the election.

“No wording of the change to section 25 has been agreed to because, depending what the NA decides, that task will be given to drafters and then we will have to go through a public participation process about that,” she said. The NCOP “will also have to go through a similar process to change the section. So, I don’t see the section being changed and coming into effect before the end of the year, at the very least.”

Given that section 25 is part of the Bill of Rights of the constitution, two-thirds of lawmakers in the 400-seat National Assembly and six of the nine provinces in the National Council of Provinces will need to approve the change, constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said by phone.

In other words, this will be a long and carefully considered process. The Constitution is not easily altered.

Now let’s look at the Land Expropriation Bill:

The constitution changes are separate to the Department of Public Works’ draft Expropriation Bill, which it released for public comment on Dec. 21, giving the public 60 days from then to make submissions. The draft is the third version of the bill, with the first iteration released in 2008.

The government has “no ambition” to pass the bill before the election, but wants to have it fully processed and signed into law by the end of the year, Deputy Public Works Minister Jeremy Cronin said in an interview. Lawmakers have received “a large number of public submissions” and will table the changes to the draft at the last cabinet meeting before the election, he said.

This proposes that land can be seized under the following circumstances:

• If it is already occupied or used by a labour tenant (someone who works for a landowner in exchange for the right to use a portion of the land for their sustenance)
• If it is held purely for speculative purposes (land that is not being used but was acquired because it could be worth something at some point)
• If it belongs to a state-owned company
• If the original owner has abandoned it

Finally, the Bill states that land can be used by an expropriating authority temporarily if it’s urgently required, but only for a period not exceeding 12 months. It is also stated that it will be “just and equitable for no compensation to be paid where land is expropriated in the public interest”.

Now that you have the facts, it will be easier to ignore all of the fake news going around because, if implemented correctly and fairly, this could be a step in the right direction for South Africa.

[source:bloomberg]