20 December 2024; published January 2025
Expropriation Act replaces the 1975 law
President Cyril Ramaphosa assented to the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, replacing the apartheid-era 1975 statute and setting out procedures for expropriation in the public interest.
View in timelineOn 20 December 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa assented to the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which was published in January 2025. The Act repeals the Expropriation Act of 1975 and regulates how organs of state may expropriate property for a public purpose or in the public interest.
It sets out procedures, requires an attempt to reach agreement before expropriation in ordinary circumstances and identifies limited circumstances in which nil compensation may be just and equitable. The Act does not itself transfer a particular farm or parcel of land, and its commencement requires proclamation.
The measure belongs in the longer history of land dispossession, apartheid spatial control and post-1994 land reform. It became a focus of disagreement over whether constitutional property protections and land restitution can be reconciled with faster redistribution.
Significance
Put land reform, property rights, compensation and the constitutional meaning of the public interest back at the centre of national politics.
Why it matters
Put land reform, property rights, compensation and the constitutional meaning of the public interest back at the centre of national politics.
Disputed interpretations
The government presents the Act as a constitutional framework for equitable land access; opponents fear insecure property rights and arbitrary seizure. The Act requires a public purpose or public interest and its commencement remains subject to proclamation.