South Africa’s governing coalition is under fresh strain after the Democratic Alliance formally joined an Expropriation Act legal challenge in the Western Cape High Court this week.
The party filed its case alongside AfriForum, the Institute of Race Relations Legal team and other applicants on Monday, according to EWN. Each group is challenging different sections of the law, though they share one goal, getting the court to declare the Expropriation Act unconstitutional.
DA Federal Council chairperson Ashor Sarupen told reporters outside court that the Expropriation Act legal challenge rests on two arguments. He said parliament used a flawed process to pass the law through the National Council of Provinces. He also said key sections of the act cannot work in practice once triggered.
Sarupen pointed to sections 19(2) and 19(3) specifically, as reported by the Sunday Times. He argued these clauses create a circular requirement. Compensation must reportedly be settled by a court before expropriation can proceed, yet the same court process is meant to determine that compensation in the first place.
DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis has framed the Expropriation Act legal challenge as a matter of principle rather than politics. Speaking ahead of the hearing, as reported by EWN, he said the party rejects any form of expropriation without compensation, regardless of what the state chooses to call it.
AfriForum, a separate applicant in the same case, argues along similar constitutional lines. According to Business Day, the lobby group’s counsel, Adv Henk Havenga, told the court that parliament cannot create categories of land for which no compensation is paid through ordinary legislation. Havenga said the constitution permits land reform but does not stretch that far.
The Presidency, parliament, the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, and the Economic Freedom Fighters are opposing aspects of the applications, Business Day reported. President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law in December 2024, replacing an apartheid-era statute that had governed compulsory property acquisition since 1975.
The Expropriation Act legal challenge places the DA in direct conflict with its senior coalition partner, the African National Congress, inside South Africa’s Government of National Unity. The two parties have been bound by a signed Statement of Intent since 2024, yet they remain split over how far the state should go in redistributing land without paying for it.
This is not a new fight. The DA first signalled its intention to pursue an Expropriation Act legal challenge in early 2025, arguing the ANC could not act as though it held a parliamentary majority on its own. Monday’s court appearance marks the most advanced stage of that fight so far.
Timing matters here. South Africa heads into local government elections on 4 November 2026, a date President Ramaphosa confirmed in April. The Electoral Commission of South Africa has registered more than 500 political parties for the vote, and Gauteng’s metros, particularly Johannesburg, are expected to be tightly contested battlegrounds.
An unresolved Expropriation Act legal challenge running alongside campaign season could sharpen how both the DA and the ANC position themselves to voters. The DA has built part of its election messaging around property rights and investor confidence, while the ANC continues to defend the law as central to redressing apartheid-era land dispossession.
AfriForum chief executive Kallie Kriel said outside court that his organisation is prepared to take the matter to the Constitutional Court if the Western Cape High Court rules against it, according to the Sunday Times. That signals the wider Expropriation Act legal challenge could stretch well beyond the November elections, regardless of the initial ruling.
For now, the Western Cape High Court is expected to rule on the consolidated case in the coming months, though no judgment date has been announced. Legal observers say the Expropriation Act legal challenge could still move through appeal courts long after that first ruling lands. Whatever the outcome, the case has already exposed how far apart the DA and the ANC remain on land policy, even while governing together.
