Tensions between South Africa and the new US administration made headlines in the early weeks of 2025.
In early February, US President Donald Trump took him to social media claiming that South Africa “confiscated land and treated certain classes of people very badly.” He also signed an executive order halting aid to the state.
Executive Orders are legislative tools that allow the US president to issue legally binding orders to the federal government.
Trump, who was responding to the recently passed Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, said it “allowed the South African government to seize the agricultural property of minority Africans without compensation.”
On March 7, 2025, Trump took him back to social media again, claiming that South Africa was “a bad place right now.”
“They confiscate their land and farms, and it’s much worse than that,” he wrote.
But what is the expropriation law, and does it allow what Trump claims?
“The expropriation of land is not a new phenomenon, nor is it inherent to South Africa,” Thomas Karberg, an associate with the law firm’s Werksmans lawyer, told Africa Check. “The land can be expropriated to build roads, government-funded facilities, etc.”
In other countries, expropriation is called a prominent domain or forced purchase. All of these terms refer to the government’s authority to acquire private property for public use, following monetary compensation.
The main purpose of this Act is to allow the government to achieve ownership of private property for public purposes or for public interest. The property owner is not to be paid the market value, but to receive fair and impartial compensation for the expropriated land. The new law also allows expropriation of land in exceptional cases without compensation.
The 2024 Act is replaced with the 1975 Expropriation Act, and is in line with Section 25(3) of the South African Constitution. “The 1975 law used the concept of “ambitious seller of willing buyers.” This meant that the government had to pay the market value of the property it was expropriating,” Karberg said.
Section 25(3) of the Constitution demands that compensation be fair and equitable, he explained, balancing the public interest with the interests of property owners affected by expropriation.
“There was a legal tension between the 1975 law and the Constitution, and the constitution is the highest law on the land, so we had to renew the law to resolve that tension.”
Section 12(3) of the Act allows land to be expropriated without payment if it is in the public interest, such as ensuring fair access to South Africa’s natural resources, including land and water. No compensation is applied either.
The land is unused and stored only for future profits. The land belongs to the government and is not used for its core functions and was acquired at financial costs. The owner has abandoned the land and, if possible, does not control it.
The land will not be confiscated as the law follows the rule of law. Karberg told African Check that expropriation follows formal legal procedures.
Indemnification is agreed by the state and owner or determined by the court.
Land compensation, or “land claims,” aims to return the land that was forced to be removed by black people under the Indigenous Land Act of 1913. The law simply restricts land ownership on a race basis and allows black people to own or rent land within designated areas known as the Native Reserve. These reserves account for only 7% (later 13%) of South Africa’s total surface area.
Sign up for the AllAfrica newsletter for free
Get the latest African news
success!
Almost finished…
You need to check your email address.
Follow the instructions in the email you sent to complete the process.
error!
There was a problem processing the submission. Please try again later.
“Since 1996, expropriation in the context of land compensation has been part of our law,” Karberg told Africacheck, but “but expropriation of land claims is reserved in exceptional cases.”
Land claims must also follow legal procedures supervised by the Land Court. Decisions made in the Land Court may be appealed in the Supreme Court of Appeal or, if necessary, in the South African Constitutional Court.
Carberg said land reparations are just part of a much broader land reform programme, and land reform is not the sole focus of the 2024 Expropriation Act. “The act clearly shows that it is not intended to be used to justify a wide range of “hands of land” or confiscation of land,” he said, adding that these “false stories” are extremely dangerous.
