This article was first published by City Press on 20 April 2025
No one in South Africa will ever receive any land through the Expropriation Act, whether with or without compensation.
The prospect of South Africans acquiring land through expropriation remains as improbable today as ever before. “You may fully implement the Expropriation Act, but it will not deliver land to you,” said legal scholar Tembeka Ngcukaitobi during the recent Mzansi Young Farmers Indaba.
“What is critically needed is a Re-distribution Act to make land accessible to the people. The Expropriation Act, as it stands, focuses solely on consolidating state ownership, not on redistributing land to any person,” he explained.
It is high time for South African politicians to confront their reality and honestly inform their electorate about the specifics of their land redistribution policies. Who will benefit from the land? How will it be allocated? And, crucially, when will it be transferred into individual hands? There is a growing distrust that these politicians have no intention whatsoever of following through on these promises. If this is indeed the case, they must come forward and confess it.
While these concerns may seem obvious to some, they are far from clear to a large portion of the electorate. The newly enacted Expropriation Act, signed by the ANC president, applies solely to the seizure of land, buildings, and assets by the state. It conspicuously omits any provision for the subsequent transfer of these assets to individuals, thereby negating the promise of “economic freedom” that is central to their rhetoric.
The ANC, MK, and EFF have deceived their supporters into believing that expropriation without compensation will miraculously lead to immediate wealth re-distribution. This notion could not be further from the truth. Rather than empowering individuals with land ownership, their approach to expropriation is merely designed to further expand government control over the private lives of citizens.
Young black farmers for instance, will still be forced to navigate the same bureaucratic obstacles that have long hindered land access. These processes are notoriously slow, offering only temporary leases, effectively cancellable at the whim of low-level government or municipal officials. This is a far cry from genuine, secure ownership that would facilitate economic freedom and wealth creation.
As Ngcukaitobi rightly pointed out, the Expropriation Act will not re-distribute one scrap of land to anyone. A comprehensive Re-distribution Act is required to ensure that land reaches the people. As it stands, the Expropriation Act is solely about transferring land to state ownership. It says nothing whatsoever about redistributing land to the people.
Vast tracts of land already available
The need for redistribution is urgent and does not require waiting for the Expropriation Act to reach fruition. Over 2.5 million hectares of farmland are already under state ownership, alongside millions of hectares inherited from the previous regime, now mostly lying fallow and deteriorating rapidly. There is no valid reason for this land to remain fallow any longer. It must be redistributed without further delay, thereby immediately contributing to the nation’s economic growth and employment creation.
At present, much of this land has become what economists term “dead capital.” Dead capital refers to property that, whilst possibly occupied, is not legally owned. As such, it can scarcely be utilised in economic transactions, depriving it of its value and utility inter alia as collateral for loans or investment. This situation must be rectified now in order to unlock the land’s potential and reintegrate it into the economy.
While the redistribution of agricultural land is important, the Expropriation Act also holds some promise for addressing South Africa’s acute urban housing crisis. Under the new legislation, land that can be expropriated without compensation includes abandoned buildings, hijacked properties, and land with long outstanding municipal rates. In cities such as Johannesburg, auctioning these neglected properties to developers will quickly provide a solution to the pressing shortage of affordable housing in the inner city.
Overcoming bureaucratic barriers
There is clearly an urgent need for a more efficient, equitable, and innovative approach to land allocation. The government must streamline its management of land resources. How will land be allocated to individuals seeking to farm? How can those wishing to build homes or establish businesses access land and use it to its full economic potential?
Currently, securing land through institutions like the Land Bank is mired in exhaustive red tape. While it is wise to ensure that land reaches the appropriate beneficiaries, the existing system often excludes qualified individuals who lack the financial capacity to present a viable project. This exclusion is particularly problematic, as securing financing for such projects is well-nigh impossible without freehold title being granted to the land.
Prioritising restitution
A new Re-distribution Act would represent a significant departure from the current political manoeuvring that has tainted our legal framework, manoeuvring for which our Constitution provides no foundation. Such a new Act should prioritise restitution as its central focus, followed by other objective factors in selecting beneficiaries. Restitution is an age-old issue of justice, intrinsically tied to property rights, particularly when proven rights have been unjustly violated. Those whose rights have been shown to have been violated must have an unrestricted right to seek restitution.
The imperative for transparency and accountability
Politicians must be transparent with their constituents, offering a clear and honest roadmap of how land will be allocated. Who will receive land, by what process, and when will the transfer occur? Without this transparency, state-owned land and properties will either remain underutilised, excluded from the economy, or fall prey to bureaucratic mismanagement, where officials wield power over citizens for political and personal ends.
The temptation for those in power to use state-owned land as a political tool is ever-present. This undermines democracy, silencing opposition by threatening eviction or the loss of utilisation. This is reminiscent of the power dynamics in areas where for example tribal chiefs hold sway. In such areas dissidence is quickly silenced through the fear of losing occupation of the land granted by the chief for use but not ownership. This is the danger when the state owns and controls land without a clear and transparent freehold re-distribution framework.
What is urgently required is a clear, unambiguous Act of Parliament outlining how expropriated land will be distributed, who will receive it, how it will be allocated, where it will be located, and when full ownership will be transferred. This framework must complement the Expropriation Act, ensuring that land redistribution is not only just, but also transparent and accountable. Without such clarity, the rule of law will be further compromised, and the power of the state will continue to be wielded for political manipulation, rather than for advancing justice and equity for all South Africans.
