A possible legal challenge is looming over Parliament’s joint constitutional review committee recommendation that section 25 of the Constitution be amended to explicitly allow for land to be expropriated without compensation.
MPs from the ANC, EFF and the National Freedom Party were jubilant this morning when they were successful in adopting the committee’s report, which recommends that section 25 be adapted.
The final recommendations of the report states: Section 25 of the Constitution must be amended, “make explicit that which is implicit in the Constitution, with regards to the expropriation of land without compensation, as a legitimate option for land reforms, so as to address the historic wrongs caused by the arbitrary dispossession of land, and in so doing ensure equitable access to land and empower the majority of South Africans to be productive participants in ownership, food security and agricultural reform programmes.”
It also recommends that Parliament table, process and pass a constitutional amendment bill before the end of the current Parliament.
Chairpersons Lewis Nzimande and Stan Maila warned that the process would be a lengthy one and were unable to indicate how long it would take. This process will include a debate in the National Assembly as well a 30 day period for public consultation.
Maila also reiterated that the Constitution had been amended 17 times already since 1996 when it was adopted. However this will be the first time that an amendment of the Bill of Rights is also necessary and it will require a two thirds majority of the House which no single party currently has. The EFF are on record offering to join forces with the ANC to come up with the required two thirds.
The DA and Cope, which represented smaller parties including the FF Plus, ACDP and IFP, opposed the recommendation, citing a flawed process. The opposition parties will address the media later today on the way forward.
The DA’s Annelie Lotriet, a member of the committee, reiterated that the DA was against the amendment of section 25.
“The DA and its members on the constitutional review committee state categorically that these observations and recommendations are made under protest. The draft report in which these recommendations and observations are to appear should not be considered yet as the constituent parts of the report are yet to be finalised. The DA reserves its rights with regard to this draft report, and the making of recommendations under these circumstances should not be construed under any circumstance as acquiescence, approval or consent of the errors in procedure that have been willfully committed by the committee and some of its members. Nor should it be construed as legitimising the process,” Lotriet said.
The adoption of the report is a significant victory for the EFF, who will go into next year’s elections having made good on a promise to expropriate land without compensation.
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