Afrikaner rights group AfriForum has launched a court bid to have the land expropriation act declared unconstitutional, and has described it as a “real threat” to private property rights in the country.
AfriForum said the legislation contained “serious flaws”, and wanted the North Gauteng High Court to declare it unlawful.
In January, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Bill into law, repealing an apartheid-era law of 1975, allowing the state to seize land in the public interest.
The bill has thrust SA into the international spotlight, drawing the attention of US President Donald Trump. He misleadingly used its passage to justify pulling the plug on aid to SA saying it was a violation of human rights against white Afrikaners.
The court challenge by AfriForum comes as Ramaphosa and his delegation are expected to meet Trump at the White House in Washington on Wednesday, in a move aimed at resetting and revitalising bilateral relations between the two sovereign countries.
Trump’s actions have the support of his SA-born billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, and right-wing Afrikaner lobby groups who have further urged the US president to sanction individual ANC leaders.
Musk, who is seeking to have his Starlink internet service operationalised in SA, has used his social media platform X to rally against the “openly racist laws” of the country of his birth.
Ramaphosa has said AfriForum and Solidarity’s recent visit to the US, where they lobbied influential legislators to back their position on SA, was unpatriotic. This has culminated in 49 Afrikaners leaving for the US recently after Trump offered them refugee status.
However, AfriForum said on Wednesday that certain sections and provisions of the act contained “inherent contradictions, which is why the court should declare the act unconstitutional. Alternatively, AfriForum seeks an order that those specific provisions be declared unconstitutional”.
“Central to AfriForum’s arguments is that section 12(3) of the act, which provides for the expropriation of property at nil-compensation, opens the real possibility of the abuse of public power in that every expropriating authority, including mismanaged local authorities, is given the power to expropriate at nil-compensation,” the organisation said in a statement.
“A further major flaw AfriForum highlights is the fact that the act allows a property owner to be deprived of their property while the matter of its expropriation is fought over in court — a process that can take many years.”
According to government data, the white minority owns 72% of agricultural land in the country with the black majority owning only 4%.
The government has defended the expropriation bill, saying it underwent a five-year process of public consultation and parliamentary deliberation, and aligned legislation on expropriation with the constitution.
AfriForum spokesperson Ernst van Zyl said: “We assured our members and the public at the beginning of the year that we would fight this dangerous act both domestically and internationally.
“The spotlight that Trump has so far placed on the threat this act poses to private property rights in SA is a welcome development. AfriForum’s court case, in which we will test the constitutionality of this act, is our most important local battle in this fight.”
Trump, who has halted all financial aid to SA, has adopted a hostile attitude towards the government of national unity (GNU) over its land policy. In February, he signed an executive order offering Afrikaners refugee status, accusing the SA government of confiscating land and treating certain classes of people unfairly.
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