Final Agri SA comments on the Expropriation Bill. Agri SA participated in the NEDLAC- and Parliamentary processes from 2013 through to 2016, which resulted in the 2016 Expropriation Bill that was adopted by Parliament and forms the basis for the current Bill. Agri SA also participated in the Constitutional Review Process on the possible amendment of section 25 and our views expressed during that process is also relevant to the Bill in so far as it provides for expropriation without compensation. In a nutshell, Agri SA is against expropriation without compensation. We support the principle of equality in the bearing of public burdens, generally accepted in constitutional democracies and we believe that current landowners should not be required to bear a disproportionate burden of the imperative for land reform in the public interest. This principle is aimed at achieving at a fair balance between the interests of the expropriator (usually funded by the fiscus) and the expropriatee (who has lost his or her land). Most European countries accept that the property owner’s wealth status must not be affected by the expropriation, which means that their economic position must in principle be the same after the expropriation as before it….

Read full document HERE

Source: AGRI SA