Court battle as South Africa starts land seizures

The South African Government has begun the process of seizing farms, according to a local newspaper.

City Press reported that two game farms in Limpopo province “appear to be the first properties that will be expropriated without following a court process”. It said the owners had wanted R200 million ($20.8m) and that the Government had offered R20m.

According to City Press, a 2006 Government Gazette showed that the Musekwa tribe had lodged a claim against the Akkerland Boerdery, owners of one of the farms, as far back as 1996. City Press added that “various legal experts are of the opinion that in certain circumstances, not paying any compensation may be justified and that it is therefore unnecessary to amend the Constitution, but the courts have not yet ruled on this point”.

It said Akkerland had gone to the Land Claims Court to prevent its owners from being evicted.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took over from Jacob Zuma in February, said last month that South Africa would push ahead with plans to amend the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation.

However, Reuters reported that at a land summit in May, the ruling African National Congress announced it would test clauses in the constitution to see if they allow for land to be expropriated without compensation.

The BBC reported that around 10 per cent of land in white ownership has been transferred to black owners since the end of apartheid, which is only a third of the ANC’s target.

The 1913 Native Lands Act, repealed in 1991, made it illegal for black South Africans to acquire or lease land outside of the reserves in which they had been forced to live, except from other black South Africans.