The National Assembly passed the Constitutional Review Committee report on land expropriation without compensation with more than 200 votes on Tuesday.
The report recommended that Section 25 of the constitution be amended to allow land expropriation without compensation.
The majority of parties in the National Assembly supported the report. On Wednesday the Chief Whip will pass the motion or propose the motion to the House for the setting up of a committee that will try and change the constitution.
Former Chairperson of Parliament’s Review Committee on Land, Vincent Smith shares his perspective on the matter.
“I think that we will never have stability unless people feel that they part of the mainstream economy. They part of having their dignity restored and land has been central in our struggle for many years.”
Smith also believes that South Africa is different and hence the reason why this initiative will be successful compared to other countries like Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
“When we moved from apartheid to democracy nobody believed we could do that, nobody believed that we… and afterwards they said well this is a miracle nation because it suited people then that we should and forgive the sins of the past. I don’t think we will go Zimbabwe route because ours is very different. We went to the people, we’ve learned a lot from the past.”
The DA, FF-Plus, ACDP, COPE and IFP were against the report. DA MP Annelie Lotriet expresses opposition to the report because of the obscurity around it.
“We oppose the report because we believe the report is absolutely flawed, the process was flawed. It was steamrolled; it was done in a reasonably short time… Secondly we also believe that quite frankly it is a problem that the constitution and the amendment to the constitution is now being seen as the absolute solution for everything that the government hasn’t been doing for 25-years.”
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