Passing of Land Bill Ignites Farmers’ Old Fears of Seizures in South Africa

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is poised to sign a Land Expropriation Bill that would allow the government to take land without compensation. Here he speaks at an EU-Africa summit in Brussels, on Feb. 18, 2022. Johanna Geron, Pool Photo via AP

JOHANNESBURG—Dries Marais gazed over his golden fields on his farm in the South African province of North West, corn glittering in the aftermath of a heavy thunderstorm.

In guttural Afrikaans, the 62-year-old said, “When many of my friends and relatives left South Africa in the 1990s and early 2000s, I stayed.