Expropriation will lead to 'capture' of land reform: Steenhuisen
The Democratic Alliance's (DA) chief whip in the National Assembly, John Steenhuisen, has condemned the manner in which the African National Congress (ANC) is approaching the issue of land reform.
In December, the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces adopted the report which recommends amending Section 25 of the Constitution.
This paves the way for the expropriation of land without compensation.
Steenhuisen says Section 25 doesn't prohibit land reform from taking place in the country and therefore there is no need to amend it.
He believes that property has to be transferred into the hands of the previously disadvantaged communities.
"We have had centuries of disposition of land, we have had a legislative deprivation of land and it is right we set about restoring that," says Steenhuisen.
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He adds the party has to build a property class in the country that is representative of social and political landscape.
"But you don't do that on the method the ANC is embarking upon. You don't need to change the constitution to ensure that we have social justice around the land question in South Africa."
Steenhuisen believes the passing of the bill will lead to "elite capture of the land reform process".
He used the example of the controversial Vrede Diary Farm Project and how politically connected individuals benefitted from subverted land reform process.
"It is not the people who deserve to have justice of land being restored to them but well connect political cadres."
Steenhuisen was speaking at a community meeting in Olifantsfontein with various concerned citizen over the bill and the DA's plans to challenge it in court.
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