DOCUMENTS

The EFF's draft resolution on EWC

Fighters say govt's recent land audit says that black people own less than 2% of rural land

Draft resolution (Mr JS Malema): That the House — 

notes that South Africa has a unique history of brutal dispossession of land from black people by the settler colonial white minority;

further notes that land dispossession left an indelible mark on the social, political and economic landscape of the country, and has helped design a society based on exploitation of black people and sustenance of white domination;

acknowledges that the African majority was only confined to 13% of the land in South Africa while whites owned 87% at the end of the apartheid regime in 1994;

further acknowledges that the current land reform programme has been fraught with difficulties since its inception in 1994, and that the pace of land reform has been slow with only 8% of the land transferred back to black people since 1994, and that the recent land audit claims that black people own less than 2% of rural land, and less than 7% of urban land;

recognises that at the centre of the present crisis regarding the resolution of the land question is section 25 of the Constitution, the "property clause", which protects private property rights, and requires of the State to pay compensation when expropriating land in the public interest and for a public purpose further recognises that this property clause makes it practically impossible for those dispossessed of their land to get justice for injustices perpetrated against them;

acknowledges that in his State of the Nation Address, President Ramaphosa made a commitment that government will embark on a radical land reform programme that entails expropriation of land without compensation;

further acknowledges that any amendment to the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation must go through a parliamentary process as parliament is the only institution that can amend the constitution.

establishes an ad hoc committee, in terms of Rule 253 (l)(a), the committee to:

- Review and amend section 25 of the Constitution to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation;

- Conduct public hearings to get the views of ordinary South Africans, policy makers, civil society organisations and academics, about the necessity of, and mechanisms for expropriating land without compensation;

- Propose the necessary constitutional amendments with regards to the kind of future land tenure regime needed, and to the necessity of the State being a custodian of all South African land,

- consist of 11 members, as follows: ANC 6, DA 2, EFF 1, and other parties 2;

- exercise those powers in Rule 167 that may assist it in carrying out its task; and

- Report back to the National Assembly by no later than 11 May 2018.

Source: EFF SA on Twitter.