In his 2018 State of the Nation address, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to the acceleration of land redistribution programme to redress historical injustices of land dispossession and displacement that will avail more land for cultivation towards food security, rural development and poverty reduction whilst equally responding to equitable spatial planning and settlement.
The announcement was followed by the appointment of the Land Reform Inter-Ministerial Committee chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza in July 2018 to give effect to this process.
Subsequently, in September of the same year, the President appointed an Advisory Panel to provide a unified perspective on expropriation for the land in the wider context of persisting land inequities and unsatisfactory land and agrarian reform and urban land development and distribution.
In the final report, the advisory panel made a proposal for an amendment of the constitution that clarifies that expropriation without compensation be necessary in limited circumstances. The Panel noted that the Restitution Act of 1975 preceded the 1996 Constitution and does not align with the transformative mandate of the Constitution and proposed speedy replacement of Act 65 of 1975, by finalizing the Expropriation Bill.
It is in this context that on 11 October 2020, the publishing of the Expropriation Bill of 2020 as gazetted on 09 October 2020, was announced. The Bill is part of the work of government in ensuring that a comprehensive land redistribution for agricultural purpose, human settlements and industrial development is implemented.