‘(Grave) flaws in the public participation process and constitutional inconsistencies’ ought to compel President Cyril Ramaphosa to send the Expropriation Bill back to Parliament for revision, says the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).
These and other points have been put to the President in a Petition urging him not to sign the draft legislation into law.
The Bill was approved by Parliament and sent to the President for his assent – but the IRR points out in a statement that various instances of unconstitutionality in the draft law must compel Ramaphosa to send it back for revision.
These include ‘grave flaws in the public participation process and constitutional inconsistencies’.
Says Makone Maja, IRR campaign manager: ‘The Expropriation Bill was rushed through Parliament and hastily sent to President Ramaphosa for signing. Not only did Parliament barely scrape the surface of the tens of thousands of submissions made during the public hearings on this piece of legislation, it also did not perform a thorough Socio-Economic Impact Assessment System (SEIAS) test to assess the potential economic harm South Africa will suffer if the Bill is passed. This leaves the public, including businesses and investors who may be affected, ill-informed about the true cost of the legislation.
‘The Bill is unconstitutional in its inconsistency on issues including the contents of the notice of expropriation related to when mediation and court intervention may arise. It is unclear on the open-ended list of land that can be expropriated without compensation and whether this includes improvements made on the land or not. This too is unconstitutional on the basis of vagueness.’
Maja adds: ‘The petition provides numerous other reasons for contesting the Bill. While the Institute can only petition the President on legal grounds, our concerns stretch beyond these parameters. The government has been chipping away at the rule of law in various ways over a sustained period of time and this must be opposed.
‘The Bill escalates the undermining of the rule of law by granting the government powers to seize land. It takes a wrecking ball to property rights, the pain of which will be felt by the most vulnerable among us. Investments and capital flow towards countries that are welcoming to them, while insecure property rights chase them away. Weakened property rights are a signal of hostility to capital and development. The loss of development will translate to jobs being lost and the real livelihoods of ordinary people being affected,’ says Maja.
‘The Institute hopes that the President will be convinced by the merits in the petition and send the Bill back to the National Assembly to allow the legally required, key procedural steps to be completed and the unconstitutional provisions to be revised. In the spirit of constructive engagement, the IRR has made a concrete proposal on how this can be done to create a constitutionally compliant Expropriation Bill. However, if the President does sign the Bill in its current form the IRR will be looking to take legal action as well as building a civil society lobby to oppose it,’ Maja concludes.
South Africans who wish to see property rights being upheld are invited to add their names in support of the IRR’s campaign on the Institute’s website, at https://irr.org.za/campaigns/ewc-is-almost-here.
[Image: Simon Hurry on Unsplash]