An interim order is expected to be granted at 10 o’clock Friday morning after judgment was reserved in the land expropriation matter at the High Court in Cape Town between lobby group AfriForum and Parliament.
AfriForum is seeking relief to halt the final processing of the Constitutional Review Committee Report which recommended that Section 25 of the constitution be amended to expropriate land without compensation.
AfriForum wants a full judicial review of the committee proceedings.
AfriForum’s lawyer Willie Spies has described the arguments by the two parties as robust.
He says: “One can never preempt what the court will do so we will have to wait. The judges indicated that they will hand down an order and then give their reasons later. So whatever the order will be, is not clear to us. We do have confidence in the courts and we do have confidence in the judges.”
“There was a robust exchange of ideas, very good legal arguments were vented and we will deal with whatever comes to us.”
Meanwhile, ANC member of the Constitutional Review Committee Vincent Smith says he is confident that the court will not stop Parliament from continuing to process the committee report on land expropriation.
The debate on the report is scheduled for December 4 in the National Assembly and the NCOP.
Smith attended the court proceedings.
He says: “I think on the basis of the debates and the discussions and the arguments that were raised, we are very confident that the court will allow Parliament to continue with its business. We are hopeful that the ruling will be that Parliament will continue with its business and anything else can be dealt with by the lawyers. We think that is sufficient argument that Parliament should be able to continue with its business and there is no urgency in terms of interdicting the work of Parliament.”
The UDM and National Freedom Party (NFP), serving in the Constitutional Review Committee, say they are also confident the High Court in Cape Town will rule in the favour of Parliament.
UDM committee member Mcedisi Filtane says: “For starters we have been vindicated, we have always said we don’t think that AfriForum and the other political parties like the DA, Freedom Front Plus, ACDP and Inkatha(IFP) have got any case. According to what was tabled here in front of the judges, it became very clear that they have got no case. They are just using the courts to drive their political agenda basically and as such I still believe that the judgment that will be handed down by the judges will be in the form of dismissing this whole big fiasco.”
