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Parliament’s ad hoc committee to amend section 25 of the Constitution has met for the last time to adopt its report which recommends that its work be taken over by the sixth Parliament.
With exactly one week to go before the end of the fifth and current Parliament, the committee - which was formed to guide Parliament on amending the Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights with regards to land expropriation without compensation, agreed that it was too late for any real progress to be made.
The recommendation is official confirmation that the Constitution cannot be amended before this year’s hotly contested general election in which the land question has been a key campaigning tool.
The committee had spent the last few weeks meeting once a week to hear from experts which included retired judge Albie Sachs, the acting valuer general, Prof Ruth Hall, Advocate Wim Trengove and Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi.
ANC MP Vincent Smith suggested that the committee add a recommendation to the report which acknowledges that “the task of amending the Constitution could not be concluded in this term” and that the “sixth Parliament be tasked” with carrying on with the process to amend section 25.
The DA and ACDP - who have been openly opposed to amending the Constitution to explicitly allow for land to be expropriated without compensation - chose to reserve their position on the report.
This was stated by Annelie Lotriet for the DA and Steve Swart for the ACDP.
The push to amend the constitution came from the EFF who want all land to be nationalised and leased from the state.
The EFF was supported by the ANC who believes that only some land should be expropriated without compensation for the public good.
The instances where the ANC would support expropriate without compensation are outlined in the Expropriation Bill.
Those instances include: farms/portions of farms with labour tenants, land owned by absent landlords, land held for speculation and land that is owned by the state or state-owned enterprises.
A two thirds majority in Parliament, currently held by the combined numbers of the EFF and the ANC, is required to make the constitutional amendment.
