National Assembly adopts report on land expropriation without compensation
The National Assembly on Tuesday voted to adopt the Joint Constitutional Review Committee's (CRC) report which recommends that the Constitution is amended to allow expropriation without compensation.
Altogether 209 MPs voted in favour of the adoption of the report, while 91 opposed it. There were no abstentions.The debate followed the now familiar pattern with parties supporting an amendment – the ANC, EFF, UDM, NFP, AIC and APC – focusing on the need to redress the historic dispossession of black South Africans.
The parties opposing an amendment – the DA, IFP, FF Plus, Cope and the ACDP – said there was no need to amend the Constitution to effect substantial land reform and the ANC has failed to implement proper land reform policies.
The parties opposed to an amendment also focused on what it considers flaws in the CRC's process, mostly in relation to how the committee handled the hundreds of thousands of written submissions it received.
The ANC and EFF, however, vouched for the procedural integrity of the committee's work.