Parliament adopts land reform report
The National Assembly has
adopted the constitutional review committee’s report on land expropriation
without compensation.
The report recommends that Section 25 of the Constitution be amended to allow for expropriation.
The adoption of the report follows months of public hearings and debates around the country on whether Section 25 should be amended or not.
The African National Congress (ANC), with support from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and smaller political parties managed to cobble together enough votes to pass the report.
A total of 201 MP’s voted in favour of the report while 91 opposed it.
The committee’s co-chair, ANC MP Moloko Maila, called on lobby group AfriForum to reconsider its decision to challenge the report in court.
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Thandeka Mbabama said even though black people are struggling to own land, her party would not vote in favour of the report.
“South Africa suffers from a history of black people being denied land ownership but to address this we don’t need to change the Constitution.
“We want land and not to to be tenants."
EFF leader Julius Malema said the reason the National Assembly is debating the report is due to the EFF motion which was tabled earlier this year.
“This is happening after the successful motion of the EFF to expropriate land without compensation and therefor anyone else who does not want to hear this fact is because that person wants to distort history.”