Bad news for property owners

Plans to approve a new Expropriation Bill could be bad news for property owners in South Africa.
According to ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa, the proposed Expropriation Bill 2015 will allow “a decisive shift away from apartheid spatial planning to more inclusive settlements close to places of work.”
This will include all types of property including mining land, retail, commercial, industrial and residential land.
Under this Bill, the local municipality would have to negotiate with owners to buy their property even if it is for less than market value. If the municipality rejects written objections they would be able to serve notices of expropriation.
If these notices were served ownership could automatically pass to the municipality the very next day.
The owners could then be given 60 days in which to sue for a better compensation amount failing which they would be deemed to have accepted the offer.
The Parliamentary Committee on Public Works has allowed only ten working days for written comments on the Bill, which had to be submitted by noon 6 May.