Serious questions raised about South Africa’s new expropriation without compensation law
Southern Africa Agri Initiative (Saai) chairman Theo de Jager raised significant questions about the controversial Expropriation Bill, including what the true plan is behind it.
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the controversial Expropriation Bill into law, which sets out how state organs can expropriate land in the public interest.
The government claimed that the new bill aligns legislation on expropriation with the Constitution.
Section 25 of the Constitution recognises expropriation as an essential mechanism for the state to acquire someone’s property for a public purpose or in the public interest.
Until now, property expropriation has been governed by the Expropriation Act of 1975, which predates the expropriation mechanism in the Constitution.
This new Bill repeals the Expropriation Act and provides a framework to guide the processes and procedures for the expropriation of property by organs of state.
The Expropriation Bill raised serious concerns among landowners, social interest groups, and even United States President Donald Trump.
The biggest concern is the mention of “instances where the provision of nil compensation may be just and equitable for expropriation in the public interest”.
“It may be just and equitable for nil compensation to be paid where land is expropriated in the public interest,” the bill states.
It provides a few examples where nil compensation could be applicable, including “where the land is not being used”.
However, the Expropriation Bill also states that nil compensation is not limited to the circumstances provided in the act.
Expropriation without compensation has caused devastation in countries where it has been implemented, like South Africa’s northern neighbour, Zimbabwe.
President Trump said he would cut off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation into taking land from certain people has been completed.
“South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
Earlier this week, Ramaphosa spoke with Elon Musk after he joined President Trump in criticising the country’s new land expropriation law.
Ramaphosa spoke to Musk “on issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,” his office said in a statement on X on Tuesday.
He “reiterated South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality.”
Serious questions about South Africa’s new expropriation law

Theo de Jager, the chairman of Southern Africa Agri Initiative (Saai), has raised serious concerns about the new Expropriation Bill.
De Jager, who is also a farmer, is at the coalface of the impact of the expropriation law on the local farming community.
He highlighted that expropriation without compensation has already happened in South Africa in the Limpopo province.
“The Akkerland farm was expropriated under the banner of ‘land claims’ to enable well-connected cadres to gain material benefits from a Chinese industrial development,” he said.
“As Limpopo farmers, we had to fight the expropriation of Akkerland in the courts at massive cost and trauma.”
The courts ultimately reversed the expropriation and found it fundamentally unjustified based on fabricated land claims.
Many stakeholders warned that the new Expropriation Bill would open the door for widescale expropriations by unscrupulous connected individuals.
“If the government does not intend to implement this law to its full extent, including the seizure of farms at zero compensation, why pass and sign such a law at all?” De Jager asked.
He raised many questions about the new Expropriation Bill, including:
- What will prevent a radical local councillor in a corrupt municipality from expropriating a sixth-generation farmer’s land at a quarter of its market value?
- Who will pay for the legal battles? Will the expropriating officials contribute anything from their own pockets, face any risks, or suffer any consequences if their actions fail?
- How exactly will the amount of compensation be calculated? What is the mathematical formula that leads to zero compensation?
- What role will race play in the implementation of this law?
- Why must land be expropriated for less than market value?
- Why would any farmer plant trees that will only be ready for harvest five years from now if they run the risk of not being compensated for them upon expropriation?
“Farmers believe these are not unreasonable questions. These same questions will resurface when the first farmer is expropriated,” De Jager said.
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