Land Expropriation Failed To Pass Constitutional Amendment.

Land Expropriation Failed To Pass Constitutional Amendment.

National Assembly has failed to pass constitutional amendment to allow land expropriation without compensation. The ANC failed to muster the required two-thirds majority as neither the DA nor the EFF supported the amendment. 204 MPs voted in favour of the bill and 145 against, with no abstentions. A total of 267 votes is required for a two-thirds majority.

During the debate, ANC MP Mathole Motshekga, who chaired the ad hoc committee that drafted the bill, said the House had an opportunity by adopting the bill to “eradicate the original sin in the interest of all South Africans”. He said the bill sought to address the “crime against the African humanity” – the dispossession of land.

“Those who are not supporting this bill are saying the suffering of African people in particular and black people, in general, should continue until sometime in the future when they are in power, something that will never happen,” he said.

DA MP Annelie Lotriet said the Constitution and Section 25 were not stumbling blocks in the way of land reform.

“Creating uncertainty around property rights goes counter to the rule of law,” she said.

“There is no need to amend Section 25, and this bill falls foul of the Bill of Rights.”

EFF leader Julius Malema called the ANC sellouts “captured by white monopoly capital”.He said the ANC was preoccupied with maintaining the status quo and protecting the property rights of white landowners.He called on people to take back the land by whatever means necessary.

“We call on South Africans to know that it is now in their hands. They must stop trusting that the ANC can do anything in its power to give them the land back. They must take it upon themselves to reclaim that which was stolen from them, and the EFF will be fully behind them when they engage in that struggle of taking back the land that was stolen from them by children of criminals.”