Another plan to use Expropriation Act to take land in South Africa

Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is the latest department head to express intentions of using South Africa’s new Expropriation Act to take over private land for the state’s use.

The latest plan is to use expropriation to take land where the energy department needs to lay out critical transmission infrastructure, and follows similar sentiments from major cities like Johannesburg.

Joburg mayor Dada Morere said earlier this month that the city plans to use the Expropriation Act to repurpose hijacked and abandoned buildings within its centres.

Just under 100 buildings have already been identified.

Ramokgopa indicated that the state plans to lay out transmission lines across several corridors over the next 10 years, some of which pass over private land.

Once the plans and processes are underway, the government will look to expropriation in the public interest.

“If it comes to expropriation, we will do that. The law permits that, and Minister Macpherson will sign it.”

Ramokgopa referred to Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson, who recently defended the country’s new expropriation laws, including the new addition of ‘nil compensation’ to the mix.

While land expropriation is not new in South Africa, the state has rarely evoked it – something which is changing rapidly, with the law getting mentioned more frequently.

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law on 23 January 2025, sparking local and international blowback against what is seen as a threat to private land ownership in the country.

The Act is not yet in effect, and the commencement date has yet to be announced. However, this has not helped the growing negative discourse around the laws.

The Act replaced the 1975 Expropriation Act and adopts the language of Section 25 of the Constitution, which addresses the right to property and the conditions under which property may be expropriated.

However, critics call the inclusion of ‘nil compensation’ in the laws unconstitutional, as section 25 clearly states that land cannot be taken arbitrarily, and that compensation must be given.

Different interpretations

Macpherson’s party, the Democratic Alliance, this week underlined its opposition to nil compensation in the laws, committing to challenging it.

The party’s federal council unanimously adopted a position of opposition to the Expropriation Act—one of many positions it has taken against its fellow Government of National Unity (GNU) partner, the ANC.

However, the Public Works minister has a different view, one more aligned with the ANC’s interpretation of the laws, which could put him on a collision course with his own party.

Macpherson’s view is that ‘nil compensation’ and ‘zero compensation’ are not the same thing, and that the former could be a valid amount offered as compensation while expropriating.

For example, he said that if there were an abandoned, derelict building with millions of rands in debt owed to a city, ‘nil compensation’ would be just and equitable payment for that property.

A farm being lived in and used wouldn’t draw the same valuation.

For Ramokgopa’s new plan, it is not yet clear how the state will go about the needed expropriation, or whether ‘nil compensation’ will factor into the equations.

Over the next 10 years, the country needs to lay over 14,000km of transmission lines, which will cost approximately R440 billion.

The more the new expropriation laws are invoked and used, the greater the chances the controversial ‘nil compensation’ clause will be used and ultimately tested in court.

Legal experts have noted that this is the only route to getting legal certainty over the constitutionality of the new rule, as much remains untested.