ANC/EFF coalition plans for a settlement on state custodianship of land oversteps the mandate of the Section 25 Ad-Hoc Committee
Plans by the ANC and EFF to reach a bilateral agreement, outside the purview of Parliament, on expropriating land without compensation, reveals the extent to which they will go to violate our Constitution and go beyond the original mandate given to the Section 25 committee by Parliament.
Not only has the ANC gone out of its way to appease the EFF by including state custodianship of land as part of their new proposal to the Section 25 amendment, they are now going the extra mile to meet the demands of the EFF.
The announcement by the EFF that it will be meeting with the ANC’s ‘top six’ on Wednesday to negotiate a possible political settlement on their agreed plan on state custodianship of land is hardly surprising. It is the latest in a series of infractions by this ANC/EFF partnership to ignore the opinion that was given to the Section 25 committee by Parliamentary Legal Services on the original mandate of the committee.
State custodianship of land was not part of the mandate given to the Section 25 Ad-Hoc committee and neither was it included in the Bill that was presented and discussed during the public participation process. Parliament’s Legal Services have already cautioned the committee against making amendments to the draft Bill without obtaining a fresh mandate from Parliament.
The legal opinion provided by Parliament’s Legal Services stated that: