Security is tight in and around Jack Botes Hall in Polokwane in Limpopo where Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on amending Section 25 of the Constitution is resuming with a public hearing on the expropriation of land without compensation.
The hearing was abandoned two weeks ago after some Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and African National Congress (ANC) supporters forced their way into the hall not observing COVID-19 safety regulations of social distancing and sanitising.
Police have been deployed around the hall. The venue already had the maximum number of people allowed under COVID-19 regulations.
ANC provincial spokesperson, Donald Selamolela, promised that their members will co-operate as the hearing is important to all South Africans.
“We want to once again to commit on behalf of the ANC on behalf of our members that we are going to make sure that we will do everything in our powers to ensure that these sessions continue without hindrance and we call upon everyone to ensure that we all play our role to make sure that this hearing become a success because it is in the interest of everyone.”
Meanwhile, EFF Commander in Chief Julius Malema condemned the disruptions two weeks ago and urged party supporters to get involved in efforts to reform land ownership in South Africa.
The chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee on amending Section 25 of the Constitution Mathole Motshekga while giving the closing remarks during the final Northern Cape leg of the public hearings, in October, said that the South African Constitution does not allow for the establishment of Bantustans or Volkstaats.
In the video below, Cabinet gives the green light for land expropriation:
