The Ad Hoc Committee to Amend Section 25 of the Constitution to Expropriate Land without Compensation is expected to meet again on Friday to either accept or reject the latest proposed draft Constitution 18th Amendment Bill.
The committee has met to get feedback on the mandates of political parties on the proposed Amendments in the Bill.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was not present. The Democratic Alliance (DA) and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) have reiterated that they will not support any bill to amend Section 25.
The committee has less than two weeks left to conclude its work and report back to the Assembly.
Ad Hoc Committee Chairperson, Mathole Motshekga says so far he has not seen any deviation from the second revised Bill so far.
“We should allow legal service to go and make the adjustments that came out of this discussion and when we meet on Friday, we must adopt or reject the Bill clause-by-clause. But so far as what happened today, I don’t find any deviation from the second revised Bill,” says Motshekga.
“But we still need to factor in the little changes here and there, polish it, clean it and then we put it before honour members for adoption and after that adoption, -then we can then instruct the administration to prepare a report which must go to Parliament (National Assembly) and depending on how fast they will work we will set the date of the next meeting,” He adds.
‘Gimmicks’
Last month, legal expert, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said the African National Congress’ (ANC) policies on land are gimmicks.
This comes after Parliament passed a bill to allow the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution.
He said the ultimate owner of the land should be to the people, not upward to the state.
“The amendment looks extremely unlikely. This entire Constitutional process is a monumental waste of time. If the ANC wants serious progress on land, what it should do right now is to pass the Expropriation Bill,” says Ngcukaitobi.
Ngcukaitobi says the party should give land to the people.
“It needs no one because it can achieve that by 50+1 per cent (%). It must pass the Land Redistribution Bill. It must pass a compensation policy and it must begin to give land to the people and it must stop the gimmicks,” says Ngcukaitobi.
VIDEO: ANC NEC member, Mathews Phosa on amendments to Section 25 of the Constitution:
