Article by: Areeb Mukaddam
Section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, states that: “No one may be deprived of property except in terms of law of general application, and no law may permit arbitrary deprivation of property.”
However this might change as the ad-hoc committee was tasked to draft an amendment for this section.
One of the provisions the ad-hoc committee wishes to add to the Constitution is: “a court may, where land and any improvement thereon are expropriated for the purposes of land reform, determine that the amount of compensation is nil.”
After the ad-hoc committee completes its draft, it must be adopted by two-thirds of the National Assembly. It then goes to the National Council of Provinces where six of the nine provinces of South Africa must agree on the amendment for it to take effect.
Parliament must then adopt a “law of general application” in terms of the Expropriation Bill. This Bill will have to go through a similar process as above but will only need more than 50% of the vote in the National Assembly, and five provinces to be approved. Once the Bill is approved and signed by the President it will be enforceable.
