Roundup: S. Africa's cabinet defends controversial expropriation bill

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe on Thursday defended the Expropriation Bill, which he said sets out the rules by which the government can lay claim to land "in the public interest and for public purposes".

The bill follows the Bill of Rights and Property Clause criteria to be considered in the case of compensation for expropriation, Radebe said at a press briefing in Cape Town after a cabinet meeting.

It will also allow for property owners to be fairly and equitably compensated, he added.

Parliament in May approved the Bill that would allow the government to make compulsory purchases of land to speed up redressing racial disparities.

Radebe said Parliament's passing of the Bill provides legal certainty to the state to continue with the implementation of the country's program of radical socio-economic transformation to resolve the land question firmly at the centre of its agenda.

It defines the "administratively just process" that any expropriating authority must follow, he said.

The Bill has been sent to President Jacob Zuma to be signed into law.

But critics say this Bill is unconstitutional, and has procedural irregularities which characterized its passing

This needs to be rectified by Parliament and the president cannot in good conscience assent to it, until it has been brought in line with the Constitution, critics insist.

Some economists and farming groups have also said the Bill could hit investment and production at a time when South Africa is emerging from a major drought.

But the government says the redistribution process needs to be accelerated, to rectify past wrongs and provide opportunities to the previously excluded. It has also said it will stick to the law and not follow the example of Zimbabwe, where farm seizures have destroyed the economy.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) is petitioning Zuma to send the Bill back to Parliament.

The DA maintains that the chief concern with this bill is that it, in its current incarnation, violates the Constitution with specific reference to the right to property and the right not to be evicted without an order of the court as distilled the Constitution.

Additionally, the bill was met with fatal procedural errors because it was not passed in a manner consistent with the Constitution and the bill should be referred back to the NCOP to fix these errors, it says.

Specifically, this Bill needs to be subject to more public participation, it adds.

On Wednesday, the Presidency said it is considering matters relating to the Bill.

At Thursday's press briefing, Radebe said the Bill and envisaged Act provide for procedural efficiency, certainty and more quicker expropriations in the public interest, including land restitution.

A person or community dispossessed of property over centuries are entitled to the extent provided by this Bill to restitution of that property or to equitable redress, he said.

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), facing local elections in August, has promised to speed up plans to redistribute land which remains predominantly in white hands two decades after the end of apartheid. Endit