Parliament sets up ad hoc committee to draft land expropriation bill

© Wawrzyniec Korona – 123RF.com

In a sitting of the House on Thursday, 6 December, Jackson Mthembu, chief whip of the ANC, tabled a draft motion that the ad hoc committee be set up to initiate the process of drafting, processing and tabling the Constitutional Amendment Bill before the end of the fifth democratic Parliament.

The decision comes after both houses of Parliament – the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces – adopted a report of the Joint Constitutional Review Committee on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

The Joint Constitutional Review Committee had recommended, after an extensive public consultation process, that Parliament amends Section 25 of the Constitution to pave the way for land to be expropriated without compensation.

MPs vote in favour of proposal

After a brief debate, and after the official opposition the Democratic Alliance (DA) called for a division – which is a process whereby a much clearer method of voting than a voice vote is carried out – a majority of MPs voted in favour of the proposal.

Deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli said after the vote: “There are no abstentions. There are 77 Nos, 183 Yeses. The motion is therefore agreed to.”

The ad hoc committee, as per Mthembu’s motion, will consist of 11 voting members of the National Assembly and will be made up of six members from the ANC, two from the DA, one from the EFF and two from other parties. The committee will also consist of 14 non-voting members of the National Assembly – two from the ANC, one from DA, one from the EFF AND 10 from other parties.

Addressing historic wrongs

Mthembu had moved on a motion that Parliament “amends Section 25 of the Constitution to make explicit that which is implicit in the Constitution, with regards to expropriation of land without compensation, as a legitimate option for land reform, so as to address the historic wrongs caused by the arbitrary dispossession of land, and in so doing ensure equitable access to land and further empower the majority of South Africans to be productive participants in ownership, food security and agricultural reform programmes”.

The motion also recommended that Parliament urgently establishes a mechanism to effect the necessary amendment to the relevant part of Section 25 of the Constitution.

His motion also called that Parliament “tables, processes and passes a Constitutional Amendment Bill before the end of the Fifth Democratic Parliament in order to allow for expropriation without compensation”.

As part of the same motion, it was recommended that Parliament sets the deadline by which the Committee is to report to 31 March 2019.