The ANC is trying to provide for land reform without uncompensated expropriation, to ensure that the Constitution does not have to be amended and take the sting out of the party's latest attempt to get more land into black hands.
A parliamentary motion for muscular land expropriation sponsored by the EFF and supported in an amended form by the governing party sailed through the legislature in February and has raised fears about property rights in general.
Since then, the number of sporadic land occupations by poor, homeless and landless South Africans has increased. The seaside town of Hermanus faced an attempted occupation, as did Midrand and other areas in Johannesburg in March.
A task team led by deputy public works minister Jeremy Cronin has drafted an amendment to a forthcoming expropriation law which also sets out clearly which land will be expropriated without compensation.
The team includes some of the country's top land experts, including lawyers Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and Ronald Lambola, as well as
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has worked closely with them to reach a new deal on land expropriation.