Zingiswa Losi
The Expropriation Act is a long overdue common-sense intervention by the government led by the ANC to accelerate efforts to address the desperate need for land whilst providing a rational framework that protects the rights of ordinary citizens.
Cosatu has been intimately involved in the development of the Expropriation Act over the past decade at Nedlac and Parliament. We support it as it empowers government to accelerate land reform, to address the legacies of apartheid and colonialism and our continuing inequalities.
If one listens to hysterical right wing commentariat, one would assume the Act is an irrational, unconstitutional license for anarchy that will collapse the economy.
A simple read of it shows it is a remarkably well crafted, surgical and detailed law in line with the Constitution and international norms. Something that is confirmed by the most renowned legal and land experts in South Africa.
The Act’s critics say it’s a shock to our legal framework. What is their alternative? To retain the existing Expropriation Act adopted in 1975, the darkest days of apartheid. This 1975 Act not only does not reflect the progressive values and mandate of the 1996 Constitution, but it was under this 1975 Expropriation Act that thousands of African, Coloured and Indian families were brutally evicted from District Six and countless other communities with no compensation!
The fact that opponents of the new Act, prefer the old apartheid Act speaks volumes about where their priorities are. Empowering the dispossessed is not one of them.
What does the new Act signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa entail?
It compels the state to address the legacies of the past and the inequalities of today. It recognises millions of South Africans lost land, homes and property with little, if any compensation. It mandates government to ensure all South Africans, in particular the historically disadvantaged, have access to land, water, minerals and other critical resources.
This is incredibly important as society can then hold government accountable and demand it tackles these painful scars.
Access to land is critical to empowering families living in our cities and towns to build their own homes and small businesses, to enable farm workers and labour tenants security of tenure, to support families in rural areas to establish their own smallholding farms. Ownership of land and property is key if we want to empower families, provide the seed to generational wealth and provide a better life for future generations.
Previously there were more than 100 separate laws providing for expropriation to various state institutions. This was a recipe for chaos and confusion. There is now a single legislative framework for the entire state, where all persons can understand their rights and how to exercise them. It ensures uniformity across the state.
Society expects government to tackle access to land and has been frustrated by the sluggish pace at which this has occurred. Frequently government has been tied up for years in court by property owners demanding outlandish compensation.
We have seen some property owners demand compensation far above market value and at the expense of a fiscus that will always be under severe stress given the many socio-economic challenges faced by society.
Much of the debate unfortunately has focused on the matter of compensation and ignored the progressive and pragmatic balancing act that the Act deliberately achieves.
The Act provides for full, partial and nil compensation. It requires the state to take into account:
– How the property was acquired, e.g. did the owners themselves pay market-related prices when they took ownership?
– What is the public use that the property is needed for, e.g. to build a road, power station, dam, school, hospital, public housing?
– What public and private investments have been made to the property?
Contrary to right wing theatrics, the Act does not give a reckless blank cheque for when partial or nil compensation may be paid. These are specific and include:
– State land to avoid different state organs seeking to profit from each other at the public’s expense. This has been a reality and is critical with the state being the largest land owner.
– Idle and abandoned land. A drive across any city reveals countless plots and buildings that have been abandoned, fallen into disrepair, are a threat to public safety and where the owners have absconded or disappeared. How and why should the state pay for such property?
– Land not developed for speculative purposes. Some owners buy land with no intention to use it but to wait for it to appreciate and then sell it in the distant future. When there is a desperate need for housing, infrastructure, economic opportunities and land reform; can we afford to squander land?
Some cry that the Act denies people the right to legal redress. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Act affirms all citizens’ inalienable right to seek relief from the courts and specifies how this can be done.
The Act provides for the Land Court where land disputes can be resolved by dedicated judges with extensive knowledge of land matters.
Critics claim the Act threatens the rights of ordinary citizens. This is hysteria based on social media likes not reality. The Act affirms the rights of all South Africans.
The Act has gone through extensive public participation at Nedlac and Parliament where it was overwhelmingly supported. It will go to the Constitutional Court where we are confident, along with South Africa’s most renowned legal experts, that it will pass constitutional muster.
We have a choice. We can continue to remain the most unequal society in the world, ignore the cry for land and then we must not be surprised when society one day implodes. Or we can address this cry and ensure all South Africans have access to land and natural resources.
Cosatu is clear, the only sober choice is the latter. South Africa must realise the vision of the Freedom Charter of a nation that belongs to all who live in it, Black and White.
Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi
BUSINESS REPORT