EFF statement on voting against the Constitutional Eighteenth Amendment Bill in Parliament
7 December 2021
Today, the EFF in parliament voted against the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill, which sought to amend Section 25 of the Constitution. We did so because we are convinced that the Bill in its present format represents a sell-out arrangement, and that if it were to be passed, it would represent a significant retreat from our quest for a comprehensive resolution of the land question in this country.
It was the EFF that introduced a motion for the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution to permit for expropriation of land without compensation in February 2018. In that motion, the EFF called for the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee that would:
- review and amend section 25 of the Constitution to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation, and in the process 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, taking into account the necessity of the State being a custodian of all South African land.