The final report of government’s advisory panel on land reform has recommended changing the constitution to allow the government to seize land without compensation, but only in certain circumstances.
The report, by a presidential panel of experts, released Sunday by the Minister for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, poured water on wholesale land seizures without payment – as feared by some farmers, investors and foreign governments.
It recommended that expropriation without compensation be applied under specific circumstances, including abandoned land; land held purely for speculative purposes; land already occupied and used by labour tenants and former labour tenants; and inner city buildings with absentee landlords.
Parliament is due to start debates on proposed changes to the land expropriation bill in October.
“It is important that the Bill must specify much more clearly the meaning of instances that would amount to “nil” compensation,” the panel, appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa,
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