By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Council has passed a motion reaffirming its position against the Expropriation of Property without compesation.
DA Federal Council is the highest policy and decision-making body in the party between Federal Congresses.
In a statement, the party says, “the Federal Council unanimously approved the motion which confirms our support for Section 25 of the Constitution, and the well-established DA position that just and equitable compensation adjudicated by a court of law must be paid for any expropriation.”
The motion which the DA Federal Council passed unanimously reads as follows:
Acknowledging that secure private property rights under the rule of law are essential to fixed investment, economic growth, job creation, and better living standards for the people of South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA):
(1) Supports section 25 of The Constitution of South Africa.
(2) Asserts our support that compensation must be just and equitable, as adjudicated by a court of law, in cases of expropriation in terms of the Constitution;
(3) Rejects the notion of ‘nil compensation’ as established by the Expropriation Act, 2024 as well as the limitations placed by the Act on rights of private property owners in contesting the terms of expropriation in court; and
(4) Supports the existing efforts of the DA to take the Expropriation Act, 2024 on judicial review and explore every other opportunity to render the Act less of a risk to private property rights.
The party added that it will continue with the court case challenging the constitutionality of the Expropriation Act in the High Court.
The party has filed its application at the Western Cape high court, naming as respondents President Cyril Ramaphosa, DA Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson, the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), the speaker of the National Assembly and several provincial legislatures.
In her affidavit supporting the party’s challenge, DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille said the passage of the Act was riddled with procedural irregularities, including several provinces in the NCOP voting in favour of the legislation without securing the proper mandates from their provincial legislatures.
The Expropriation Act has been politically contentious, with the DA alleging that it is an attempt by the ANC to implement expropriation without compensation — despite the then governing party’s failure to amend section 25 of the Constitution in 2021.
It has also garnered the ire of United States President Donald Trump, who has halted aid to the country in a bid to “address serious human rights violations occurring in South Africa”.
“The Expropriation Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fuelling disproportionate violence against racially disfavoured landowners, “said Trump.
The US allocated more than $400 million in taxpayer money to South Africa in 2023, the majority of which went to healthcare.
Ramaphosa signed the Act into law in December 2024 against the advice of Macpherson, who provided the president with a legal opinion that rendered the Bill unconstitutional.
In South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past, land distribution was grossly unequal on the basis of race. The country is still suffering the effects of this. So expropriation of property is a potential tool to reduce land inequality. This has become a matter of increasing urgency. South Africans have expressed impatience with the slow pace of land reform.