NA: Limit expropriations

2003-12-24 16:18

Cape Town - National Action (NA) has appealed to government to limit the application of "unreasonable" provisions of land restitution legislation to the most extreme cases only.

It was reported on Tuesday that President Thabo Mbeki was expected to sign the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill into law this week.

The legislation was approved in parliament earlier this year, and empowers the minister of agriculture and land affairs to purchase or expropriate land for the purposes of restoration or for any other land reform purpose.

In a statement on Tuesday, NA co-leader Cassie Aucamp said the legislation allowed the minister to expropriate land without the owner's permission or the approval of the Land Claims Court.

Limited

Chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya was reported as having said expropriation powers were expected to be necessary only in about 5% of outstanding cases.

Aucamp said if it was taken into account that about 25 000 of the 70 000 claims were still outstanding, it meant that about 1 250 expropriations would take place under the new legislation.

"The implication is that far more than 1 000 landowners will be deprived of their land against their will and without the necessary legal remedies.

"The NA appeals to government to limit the application of this unreasonable legislation to the most extreme cases," Aucamp said.

Farming community misled

During debate on the bill in the national assembly in September, deputy agriculture and land affairs minister Dirk du Toit rejected opposition claims that the bill gave the minister excessive powers.

He said the public and the farming community had been misled about the bill and its intentions.

The measure essentially empowered the minister to purchase or expropriate land for the purposes of certain restoration objectives.

The first was to restore or award land to a claimant entitled to a restitution of a right in land.

Therefore, the minister's right to expropriate only became operational when it had been established in fact that there was an entitlement of a restitution of a right in land, Du Toit said.

- SAPA