Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa July 2013 | Page 20

NEWS ALERTS

BY MONIQUE TERRAZAS

Expropriation Bill A Grave Concern
The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Churches Unite Against E-tolls

Erosion of Property Rights

Global Carbon Emissions Hit
Record High

Once the Transport and Related Matters
Amendment Bill, already approved by The
National Council of Provinces, is signed into law
by President Zuma, e-tolling in Gauteng will
commence. But some good has come of this...

E x per ience t h roughout t he world a nd
throughout history has incontrovertibly shown
that secure property rights are essential for
economic stability, growth and well-being of
any society. For this reason, the latest draft of the
Expropriation Bill should be a grave concern to
all South Africans. It is – according to Advocate
Johan Kruger of the Centre for Constitutional
Rights – “arguably so loosely formulated that
its enactment might result de facto in a severe
erosion of property rights as protected in terms
of section 25 of the Constitution”.

To prevent climate effects such as crop failure
and melting glaciers, the rise in global average
temperature needs to be limited to less than 2°C
this century. This would require emissions to be kept
to about 44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2)
equivalent by 2020. However, the International
Energy Agency (IEA) recently announced that
China led a rise in global CO2 emissions in 2012
to a record high, dashing hopes of limiting global
warming to what scientists regard as an acceptable
level and underscoring the reality that the world is
on a path to an average temperature rise of between
3.6°C and 5.3°C, which will unleash unprecedented
climate chaos.

In May, the Catholic Church slammed the
tolling project, saying people should not buy e-tags
or collaborate with e-tolling in Gauteng, due to the
lack of transparency and the unfairness of tolling
an existing road without providing alternative
routes. Shortly afterwards, other churches
expressed their support for the Catholic Church
and joined it in speaking out against the e-tolls
– including the Central Methodist Church, the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa
(ELCSA), the Union of Orthodox Synagogues
and the Dutch Reformed Church, which said that
e-tolling poses a moral, ethical dilemma. Of course,
government could hardly ignore such an outcry.
Deputy President Motlanthe met with religious
leaders representing the South Africa Council of
Churches and the South African Catholic Bishops’
Conference (SACBC), which is a positive sign,
even though government did little more than
acknowledge their concerns and reiterated that
these concerns “had been adequately addressed”,
although that is clearly not the case. Nevertheless,
it is certainly encouraging that diverse religious
groups in the country have found that collectively
they can make an impact. It is only when civil
society and the people of South Africa stand
together as one that we can bring about real change.
Hopefully speaking out – in unison – against e-tolls
is just the beginning of civil society – regardless of
race, religion or language – collectively taking a
stand against government tyranny and demanding
accountable and responsible government.

18

July 2013 SA Real Estate Investor

Kruger notes that the proposed Bill has to
balance the right to private property ownership
with the right to infringe upon that right –
striking a proportionate balance between
these two opposing rights. He argues that this
balance cannot be achieved without a much more
precise definition of the ‘public interest’; a much
more restrained definition of what constitutes
property – as ‘property’ is not limited to land;
and a much clearer idea of the role and powers of
expropriating authorities.
Says Kruger: “As the draft Bill now stands, an
expropriating authority at any level of government
would be able to initiate expropriation proceedings
related to any property of any person if they
believe – in their arbitrary view – that it would be
in the ‘public interest’ to do so. They could take
possession of the property with immediate effect
after having given notice and before payment of
any offer of compensation that they might think
appropriate. This would result in the expropriated
party having to wait until a court determines fair
and equitable compensation – which might take
years to achieve.”

The IEA has urged governments to adopt four
policies as a matter of urgency: improving energy
efficiency in buildings, industry and transport;
limiting the construction and use of inefficient power
plants; halving methane emissions; and partially
phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. These policies
will ensure climate goals can be reached without
harming economic growth. “Once again we are
reminded that the gap can be closed this decade,
using proven technologies and known policies, and
without harming economic growth in any region,”
said UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres.
But we cannot wait for government – the
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