‘Land bill’ eventually under discussion

THE controversial Expropriation Bill is finally coming under discussion in Parliament, almost a decade after it was shelved by then-minister of Public Works Thoko Didiza because of concerns about its constitutionality.

The portfolio committee on public works will today begin the first part of the public hearings on this piece of legislation. More hearings are scheduled for the duration of the week in Parliament.

The start of the public hearings this week follows the extension of the deadline for submissions in May to June.

The extension of the deadline for submissions came after some of the stakeholders complained that they did not get sufficient time to make their submissions in Parliament.

The committee, chaired by senior ANC MP Ben Martins, then agreed to extend the deadline.

The Department of Public Works tabled the bill after it expressed confidence that it had submitted an improved version. The department said it had now met all the constitutional imperatives.

The bill calls for the expropriation of land in the public interest or for a public purpose. The legislation now allows the courts to be the arbiters on compensation.

The government has insisted that no land would be expropriated without compen- sation being paid to the people or institutions whose properties or pieces of land have been expropriated.

The State has raised concern that it was undertaking a massive R4 trillion infrastructure project that would require more space for development.

In the past five years the government has already spent R1 trillion on infrastructure and will spend more money on this mega programme.

The land question is one of the most contentious issues in the country.

When the government first tabled the Expropriation Bill in 2008, there was an outcry over it, forcing Didiza to withdraw it.

The government has said it has corrected the areas of concern and plugged all the gaps.

The government indicated last year, after it conducted an audit on land, that most of the land in the country was in private hands.

It remains to be seen if the Bill will receive support from various stakeholders during the public hearings.

The ANC government has maintained, since reintroducing the Bill, that it had followed all the necessary processes to get support across the various sectors.

The ruling party has also made it a priority to fast-track land reform in the next few years.

The ANC has complained that land reform has moved at a very slow pace in the last 20 years.