DA alerts Modise to Land Panel’s constitutional warning
1 August 2019
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to the Speaker of Parliament, Thandi Modise, to alert Parliament to the stark warning given by the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land, that the proposed expropriation amendments to Section 25 of the Constitution would be inherently unconstitutional and would offend the foundational values of the Constitution. Our letter to the Speaker requests that sections of the final report of the Land Panel must be discussed and read into the record of the Ad Hoc Committee on Land.
We believe that the amendment of the Constitution would be a move that will condemn our economy to inevitable collapse.
The DA is unequivocal in its support of a legal and constitutionally outlined processes for land reform. The Constitution is not a barrier to land reform. The barriers to land reform have been and continue to be corruption, constrained budgets and a lack of political will. Amending the Constitution is nothing more than an attempt by the ANC to hide its failures in land redistribution and reform.
The following sections from page 72 of the final report by the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture clearly states that amending the Constitution to allow for land expropriation is in and of itself unconstitutional, and frankly unnecessary: