DA to oppose 'nil compensation' in Expropriation Act
Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille said her party will continue with the court case against the land expropriation without compensation.
Democratic Alliance's (DA) Federal Council has reaffirmed its firm rejection of expropriation without compensation, vowing to defend private property rights through both legal and legislative means.
The Federal Council, the DA's highest decision-making body between Federal Congresses, passed a motion that reinforced the party's longstanding support for Section 25 of the Constitution.
Central to this stance is the principle that compensation for expropriated property must be 'just and equitable' — as determined by a court of law, rejecting the controversial concept of 'nil compensation' introduced by the Expropriation Act of 2024.
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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ If the National Prosecuting Authority baulks at the optics of a treason trial, it still faces the ICC Act's uncompromising reach. Aiding or abetting crimes against humanity carries universal jurisdiction, and the Rome Statute treats systematic extrajudicial killings as just that. Evidence that lobbying paved the road to lethal police raids would drag AfriForum into a courtroom whether or not the charge-sheet carries the T-word. Beyond the legal calculus lies a political imperative. South Africa's bargain of 1994 was fragile to begin with; it cannot withstand a precedent that outsources our policy debates to foreign strongmen. If AfriForum walks unscathed, every aggrieved faction will learn the lesson: skip the ballot box, shop your grievance in Washington, wait for the rands to tumble and the rubber bullets to fly. That path leads to a broken republic and a queue of grieving families outside mortuaries. Ernst Roets likes to ask who will protect his community when the state fails. The honest answer is that the state begins to fail when citizens like him decide its laws and institutions are expendable bargaining chips on Capitol Hill. Accepting foreign sanctions at the cost of South African lives is not patriotism; it is collusion. And collusion, when it endangers the very sovereignty that guarantees all our rights, crosses the line into treason. The NDPP should enrol the indictment. If it lacks the nerve, the families of those shot dead in sanctioned austerity's shadow will eventually force the issue—here or in The Hague. That day cannot come soon enough, for in a constitutional democracy the loudest defence of free expression must never drown out the quieter, irrevocable right to life. * Gillian Schutte is a South African writer, filmmaker, and critical-race scholar known for her radical critiques of neoliberalism, whiteness, and donor-driven media. Her work centres African liberation, social justice, and revolutionary thought. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.