Backlash to Bill to take all land in South Africa intensifies

A Bill tabled by uMkhonto WeSizwe (MK) Party Member of Parliament (MP) Mzwanele Manyi that seeks to place all land under the ownership of the state has drawn widespread criticism.

The Bill, the Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill, seeks to amend Section 25 of the Constitution, which protects property rights, but also empowers the state to carry out land reform, redistribution, and restitution.

According to Manyi, its objective is to “address the historical injustice of land dispossession and to correct the structural legacy of inequality in land ownership.”

It proposes to do so in several ways. Currently, the Constitution only recognises the need for the restitution of land dating back to 19 June 1913, when the Natives Land Act became law, limiting African ownership to 7%.

The former ANC, ATM, EFF and now MK Party member said that this date should be rolled back to 6 April 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck arrived in Table Bay and annexed land to establish a refreshment station.

The preamble states that the dispossession of land since this date “constitutes a fundamental injustice that must be redressed.”

The Bill also proposes reconstituting land ownership by recognising collective ownership of land and natural resources by the people.

This would mean that land would be held in custodianship “by the democratic state and traditional authorities,” which includes Khoi-San leadership structures.

Thus, “the purpose is to enable expropriation of land without compensation for a public purpose or in the public interest.”

Criticism of the Bill

On 3 October, the Freedom Front Plus issued a statement arguing that if the Bill is to be enacted, “it would remove all references to compensation for expropriation of land and other natural resources.”

However, it argues that because the Bill “has no chance” of securing the two-thirds majority needed to be passed.

Rather, they say that it is a ploy to divert attention from the Bill currently being drafted by the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development.

The Bill referred to is the Draft Equitable Access to Land Bill, which has been presented as the next step to align land ownership with the country’s demographics following the enactment of the Expropriation Act.

“If passed as law, the government would determine a ‘fair’ farm size in each district municipality. Land ownership exceeding that size would be declared ‘excessive’ and subject to expropriation,” the VF Plus’s Dr Wynand Boshoff said.

“This is not just about issues such as food security, investments and property rights; its main aim is redistributing land as a symbolic, more than an economic, act.”

Civil society organisation AfriForum has also scrutinised Manyi’s Bill, saying that it is “an attack on private land ownership and all cultural and other communities that are working towards self-sufficiency, cultural autonomy and internal self-determination.”

AfriForum also took issue with the Bill’s application of restitution dating back to 1652, stating that this specifically targets Afrikaners because it is the only cultural community that considers this date important.

“The Bill ignores the diverse cultural composition of our society and the complex history of the country and the region,” AfriForum’s Head of Intercultural Relations and Cooperation added.

Not the first of its kind

A similar Bill to Manyi’s was introduced to Parliament in 2021, which also sought to amend section 25 of the Constitution to allow for the expropriation of land by the state without compensation.

The Bill was assembled by an ad hoc committee to initiate and introduce legislation amending section 25 of the Constitution.

However, this was ultimately rejected as it did not garner the two-thirds majority, 267 of Parliament’s 400 seats, according to section 74 of the Constitution.

Dr Mathole Motshekga of the African National Congress, the chairperson of the comittee, argued that “without making land available, social ills and moral decay will continue in our country.”

However, the Bill was met with opposition, with the Democratic Alliance’s Annelie Lotriet arguing that it is not necessary to amend the Constitution to expedite land reform.

She added that the state could use section 25 without having to amend the constitution, preserving private property rights while addressing land reform.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema accused the ANC of hijacking his party’s initial motion, which was “very radical and clear on expropriation of land without compensation.”