The draft Expropriation Bill gazetted by public works minister Thulas Nxesi last week for public comment was a disappointment and would not accelerate land reform, the Land Access Movement of SA (Lamosa) said. It believes the proposed legislation lacks justice and provides no equity for homeland dwellers. Lamosa, a federation of rural organisations advocating for land and agrarian rights says the draft bill is cumbersome and relies on too many legal steps for “incompetent and corruptible” officials to get wrong. It also ignores the land rights of those who occupy land under customary law, makes the land of the 800 state-owned companies “untouchable” for expropriation by authorities without the concurrence of the relevant executive authority responsible for them, and leaves mining companies “scot-free to continue pillaging our land with impunity”. “Our government has again failed our poor rural people,” Lamosa said in a statement. It argued that customary law land owners required spe...

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