Ekurhuleni land expropriation without compensation is about politics, not the poor – Sakeliga

The Ekurhuleni R30 million land expropriation without compensation court case is more of a political stunt than a fight to build much-needed social housing. 

This is according to Sakeliga CEO Piet Le Roux, who sat down with Newsday to discuss the case, which will be heard in February 2026, setting a precedent for similar cases in the future. 

The major court test of expropriation without compensation is centred on a 34-hectare piece of land that is being expropriated by the metro to build public housing. 

The city did not pay the owner, Business Venture Investments, despite the land receiving a R30 million valuation.

The property, Portion 406 of the Farm Driefontein 85 IR, measuring 33.68 hectares, was expropriated through a municipal notice published on 6 February 2019, with R0.00 compensation, which the owner has challenged.

Observers say the outcome could set an important precedent for the interpretation of Section 25 and the government’s new Expropriation Act of 2024, which broadened state powers to acquire land without compensation.

Le Roux told Newsday that the case is less about creating much-needed housing for the poor and more about the city setting a precedent for land expropriation. 

“If the City of Ekurhuleni had not become involved in the so-called social housing project, it’s quite possible that housing would already be standing on that development,” he said. 

At the time of the expropriation, the owners of the land were applying for development rights and had received initial approvals. le Roux said this is part of a trend.

“Without the State’s attempts at expropriation, and its collapse of administrative capability to grant land development rights, we would have much better housing developments in South Africa already.”

Mzwandile Masina, a former executive mayor of Ekurhuleni, intended to “test the limits of Section 25 of the Constitution.”

He claimed the expropriation was in the “public interest” to challenge the interpretation and application of Section 25, particularly regarding expropriation without compensation. 

The metro has also asked the court to declare the 1975 Expropriation Act unconstitutional because it requires compensation at market value.

Earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the new Expropriation Act, which amended the 1975 Act to facilitate expropriation at zero compensation.

However, it has not been gazetted yet as it is hamstrung by legal challenges.

Yet, after the signing of the Expropriation Act, the former Ekurhuleni mayor and now ANC MP said that “this is our first step towards transformation and land reform.”

“Our second and final destination is to repeal section 25 of the Constitution itself.”

A bad record of housing projects

Ekurhuleni has a history of unfinished and abandoned social housing projects. 

In 2017, Ekurhuleni entered into an agreement to build the “Daggafontein Mega City” after land was purchased by partner Rodash 117 for R170 million. 

R77.57 million was spent on the installation of internal services, including water and sewer reticulation and road and stormwater systems.

It was expected that the project would deliver 1192 walk-up housing units. By 2019/2020, the city had spent R202 million on the project, which was scheduled for completion in 2023. 

Despite this, no construction on the houses has begun to date. The city now estimates that phase one of the project will cost R670 million and is only scheduled for completion in 2030. 

Another project, a Thembisa housing project that began in 2020, has been left incomplete and abandoned. 

The project, to provide housing for those living in the Winnie Mandela informal settlement, covers 58 hectares of land and has cost the city R371,165,000.

The land was purchased from Old Mutual and should have provided 500 housing units by 2021.

Today, the building site is abandoned and overgrown, with fencing, electrical equipment, and anything of much resale value stripped. 

The city said the project was abandoned because there was insufficient funding to repair the damage caused by vandalism two years ago. 

Since BusinessTech published an investigation on it, the Department of Human Settlements and the provincial department both promised to unblock the project.

While the city struggles to complete these mega-housing projects, le Roux said this goes to show that the Driefontein land expropriation is nothing more than a political decision. 

“The pretext to public interest and social housing is just that, a pretext,” he said. “Seven years after a so-called urgent expropriation for social housing and no development has been done on that property.”

He added that the city does not have the money and that, in fact, almost no municipality in South Africa has the development capability to build multi-million rand projects the size of Driefontein. 

Le Roux argues that the shortest path to create more housing in South Africa is through allowing developers to take on this role and for the city to stop competing with them and expropriating land without compensation.

Watch the full interview with Sakeliga CEO Piet Le Roux