DA condemns the ANC’s parallel process on the Section 25 Amendment Bill
27 August 2021
In an unprecedented act of parliamentary process manipulation, the ANC has unilaterally decided to introduce a new clause in the Section 25 Amendment Bill that will see the land restitution cut-off date changed from the previous 1913 to January 1800.
This clause was essentially smuggled into the draft Bill by the ANC without the knowledge of other political parties represented in the Committee.
The excuse that this clause was introduced following input from the recently concluded public participation process is insincere and very misleading. One submission, which advocated for changing the cut-off date for land restitution, cannot be taken as a sufficient threshold to introduce this contentious clause.
The Chair of the Section 25 Ad-Hoc committee, Dr Mathole Motshekga, claims that the Management Committee was responsible for requesting an extension to the lifespan of the committee and the drafting of the latest version of the Bill. Even so, any process that sidelines the Committee is patently irregular and at variance with parliamentary rules.