EFF delighted that Mandela Day coincides with public hearings on land

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) say they are delighted that Nelson Mandela Day coincides with the public hearings on the amendment of section 25 of the Constitution to allow the state to expropriate land without compensation.

The day is commemorated today and celebrated as the late former president’s birthday.

The Constitutional Review Committee is currently conducting a nationwide tour of public hearings on the possible review of section 25 of the Constitution to make it possible for the state to expropriate land without compensation in the interest of the public.

This after the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces resolved earlier this year to mandate the joint Constitutional Review Committee to review section 25.

The section could be amended after Parliament voted in favour of an EFF motion on land expropriation.

The EFF’s leader Julius Malema is part of the committee’s delegation holding hearings in Mahikeng, North West, while his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, is in the Zululand district in KwaZulu-Natal.

“The leadership of the EFF commemorates Mandela day by listening to the people, many of whom are landless and still have no access to the means of production in this country. We are committed to doing everything to ensure our people get back the land,” a statement by the party reads.

The red berets said they had, since their inception, upheld the core values Mandela stood for in the party’s manifesto, which are freedom, service and dignity.

“We strive to achieve economic emancipation in our lifetime and serve our people by raising issues in parliament. The most urgent of all is to restore the dignity of our people by returning back the land,” the EFF said.

The party called on South Africans to commemorate Nelson Mandela Day by making their voices heard at the public hearings.

EFF national chairperson Dali Mpofu suggested in a tweet yesterday that the party would boycott former US president Barack Obama’s Nelson Mandela lecture, and instead attend the public hearings on land.

Obama delivered the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Illovo, Johannesburg, on Tuesday.

Giving a lecture to commemorate the centenary of Mandela’s birth at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha on Tuesday night, Kenyan academic Professor Patrick Lumumba said South Africa would never know peace until it resolved its longstanding land question.

READ MORE: SA shall never know peace until it tackles the land question – Professor Lumumba

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