The Constitution 18th Amendment Bill will be brought before the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The Ad Hoc Committee to Amend Section 25 of the Constitution adopted the Bill which seeks to amend the property clause to facilitate land expropriation without compensation.
The Ad Hoc Committee will not only bring the Bill to the Assembly for final approval.
It will also table the report on the Bill.
The report outlines all the processes on public hearings, submissions and deliberations on the Bill.
The committee report will first be considered by the House followed by the debate on the Bill before voting takes place.
If the Bill is passed successfully with a two-thirds majority vote, it will be sent to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence.
In terms of Section 74 of the Constitution, Bills amending Chapter 2 of the Constitution where a two-thirds majority vote is needed also require at least six provinces in the NCOP to vote in favour of the Bill before it can be sent to the President to sign it into law.
Meanwhile, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says while the party is confident that the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill will not achieve a two-thirds majority vote, his party will challenge the Bill in court if it’s passed in the National Assembly.
“We are also ready for any legal challenges. We believe it is going to require a special amendment because it impedes on other rights enshrined in Chapter 1 of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, which would require to get a special majority in the House and not just simply the two-thirds majority. So we stand ready to challenge it legally should this Bill be passed in the National Assembly,” says Steenhuisen.
Constitution’s 18th Amendment Bill to be tabled before National Assembly on Tuesday:
