The government needs to act urgently on policy contradictions and uncertainties to create a suitable environment for the private sector to invest more than R1-trillion in cash reserves. Picture: GCIS
Picture: GCIS

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ANTHEA Jeffery persists in conjuring up government conspiracies where none exist (SA might reap bitter harvest from state’s status in land bill, March 11).

She is perfectly correct that there was no definition of the word expropriation in the earlier draft of the Expropriation Bill discussed in the National Economic Development and Labour Council. Nor was there a definition of expropriation in the bill submitted to Parliament by the Department of Public Works in 2014.

However, in the course of portfolio committee proceedings, opposition MPs, in good faith I believe, called for the insertion of an explicit definition of expropriation.

Representing the department and on the advice of senior counsel, I motivated against this. Should a dispute arise, it’s best to leave it to the courts to decide, case by case, whether a particular state deprivation of property amounts to expropriation. I referred the committee to the contrasting views of Constitutional Court judges in the AgriSA case in 2013 on this very matter. However, I failed to persuade the committee.

While African National Congress MPs were lukewarm on the opposition’s proposal, they did not oppose it. Accordingly, the expropriation bill, which was passed in the National Assembly last month, has a definition of expropriation.

The bill is now with the national council of provinces (NCOP).

Meeting last week with a multi-party select committee study group in the NCOP, I indicated the department remains uncomfortable with the inclusion of the definition of expropriation in the bill.

We are open to either a reformulation or a return to our original position that seeking to define expropriation in the bill is both redundant and open to unintended consequences. The decision is now with the NCOP. In the name of not frightening off investors, Dr Jeffery’s constant, hyperbolic invention of conspiracies is liable to have exactly the opposite effect.

Jeremy Cronin, MP
Deputy Public Works Minister