DA reaffirms ‘longstanding’ opposition to expropriation with nil compensation

The DA’s federal has passed a motion to reaffirm its stance against the Expropriation Act with nil compensation and will continue its court challenge.

DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille announced on Monday evening that a 149-member body, the party’s high decision-making body between congress, passed a motion to affirm the official opposition’s longstanding position against the expropriation of property without compensation.

“The Federal Council unanimously approved the motion, which confirms our support for Section 25 of the Constitution, and the well-established DA position that just and equitable compensation adjudicated by a court of law must be paid for any expropriation,” said Zille.

Motion

The motion, which the DA Federal Council passed “unanimously”, reads:

“Acknowledging that secure private property rights under the rule of law are essential to fixed investment, economic growth, job creation, and better living standards for the people of South Africa, the Democratic Alliance (DA):

• Supports section 25 of the Constitution of South Africa.

• Asserts our support that compensation must be just and equitable, as adjudicated by a court of law, in cases of expropriation in terms of the Constitution.

•  Rejects the notion of ‘nil compensation’ as established by the Expropriation Act, 2024, as well as the limitations placed by the Act on rights of private property owners in contesting the terms of expropriation in court

• Supports the existing efforts of the DA to take the Expropriation Act, 202,4, on judicial review and explore every other opportunity to render the Act less of a risk to private property rights.

“The DA continues in our court case challenging the constitutionality of the Expropriation Act in the High Court,” Zille said.

ALSO READ: ‘SA should’ve passed Expropriation Bill in 1996’ – Ngcukaitobi

Court challenge

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Bill into law in January 2025, setting new guidelines for land expropriation without compensation.

The DA has challenged the act, arguing that the law is unconstitutional and, therefore, invalid.

It opposed the Bill throughout the parliamentary process, as it had earlier with the Expropriation Bill and the failed amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution.

The DA then applied to the Western Cape High Court in February to nullify the act, which has caused tensions in the Government of National Unity (GNU).

Expropriation Bill

The Bill, which replaces the Expropriation Act of 1975, allows land expropriation without compensation if it’s in the public interest or for a public purpose.

It also irked US President Donald Trump, who claimed that South Africa’s expropriation law is aimed at “seizing ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation”.

Constitution

In February, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said South Africa should have passed a law to redistribute land equitably when the country’s final constitution was adopted.

Ngcukaitobi said that of all the clauses in the new Expropriation Act of 2024, none had generated more heat than Section 12(3), which enables the state to offer “nil compensation” in certain instances to the owner of expropriated property.

“We should have passed a law in 1994 already, or at least 1996 when the final constitution was passed to enable the state to redistribute land on an equitable basis. There is an injunction in the Constitution that requires the state to do that the state has never passed it, and it has no explanation why it didn’t pass it.”

Ngcukaitobi emphasised that “like everything in South Africa, the problem with land reform is that it is beset by corruption”.

ALSO READ: AfriForum challenges Expropriation Act in court, criticises Ramaphosa for ‘silently’ signing the law