An Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) councillor in the City of Cape Town has told Parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee that the Democratic Alliance (DA) run city is currently selling massive amounts of public land for private use.
Nosipho Makamba-Botya was one of the participants in the final public hearings in Cape Town on whether Section 25 of the Constitution should be amended to allow expropriation of land without compensation.
Makamba-Botya said, “Poor Black people have got nothing. The land belongs to the white people in the Western Cape. I am not surprised that everyone that was here, the white people who was here who actually wanted nothing to do with the amendment of Section 25, you can imagine why.”
“The DA municipality where I am serving every time; we are sitting for council meetings. We are selling land left right and centre. By the time Section 25 is amended, there will be no land left for poor people,” added Makamba-Botya.
Manenberg overpopulated
A resident from Manenberg on the Cape Flats who supports the expropriation of land without compensation has told Parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee that the area is overpopulated with over 200 000 people.
“Manenberg is overpopulated, Chair. Mannenberg is built for 35 000 people and yet we’re more that 200 000 people living there. And that is clear that we need to go back from where we are coming from.
“So in terms of whether the question of land is to distribute should not be. We are clear that the ANC and who ever made this decision, this is a Parliamentary decision. And you already made this decision. It’s now about how you are going to do it. We don’t want to give you a blank cheque in terms of speaking on behalf of the coloniser after this process.”
CRC has until end of September
Parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee says it still has until the end of September before reporting back to the National Assembly and the NCOP on whether Section 25 of the Constitution should be reviewed.
The committee ended its public hearings around the country at Goodwood in Cape Town on Saturday. Committee Co-Chairperson Vincent Smith says the next step will be to process the written submissions that were received by Parliament.
“We are going to process the 500- odd thousand submissions that are waiting for us in Cape Town. Those submissions together with these submissions will together form the basis of our report. We originally had scheduled those hearings for the 7th to the 17th. We think that will be postponed by about two weeks. On the 7th to the 17th was on the basis that our deadline was the end of August. Our deadline is now the end of September. So it gives us time to the end of August to do the written submissions and than for the whole of September for committee to sit and and process its recommendations to parliament.”
