Constitution remains intact regarding property rights – AfriBusiness welcomes result

1 March 2017

Private property owners can breathe a sigh of relief after yesterday’s Parliamentary sitting during which the EFF failed in an attempt to pass a motion that would have amended section 25 of the Constitution (the property clause). 

The aim of the proposed amendment was to remove the stipulation that makes compensation a mandatory prerequisite when obtaining property for the purposes of land reform. The overwhelming majority (261 members) of parliament voted against the motion, as opposed to 33 in favour thereof.

“AfriBusiness welcomes this result because protected private property ownership is one of the foundations upon which a working economy is based. The Constitution is not the problem when it comes to land reform; it is Government’s bureaucratic systems and failure to properly implement legitimate land reform legislation,” says Armand Greyling, Law and Policy Analyst at AfriBusiness.

“Compensation is a vital part of the land reform process and it cannot be expected that property owners – who have paid large sums of money to acquire their respective properties – should now be disadvantaged by receiving neither a return on their investment, nor their capital,” Greyling concludes.

Issued by Armand Greyling, Law and Policy Analyst, AfriBusiness, 1 March 2017