Process to amend Section 25 of Constitution back in motion

The process to amend Section 25 of the Constitution, to allow expropriation without compensation, is back in motion.

On Thursday, the parliamentary ad hoc committee set up for this purpose adopted a programme that will see it visit Limpopo, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape towards the end of this month.

However, the committee will meet again next week to deal with some outstanding issues arising from the draft programme.

DA MP Annelie Lotriet asked how the committee will deal with people with comorbidities who would like to make submissions.

She also pointed out that two districts in the Western Cape – the Overberg and Karoo – are not provided for in the programme.

The committee will deal with solutions to this next week.

In July last year, the National Assembly resolved to appoint the committee and give it the task to amend Section 25 of the Constitution. This after the Fifth Parliament’s committee, with the same task, could not finish its work before Parliament rose for the 2019 elections.

In May, all parties at the National Assembly Programming Committee agreed to let the ad hoc committee amending Section 25 lapse. The committee had a deadline to finish its work by the end of May.

It was in the midst of an expansive public participation process when the coronavirus reached South Africa and physical distancing measures were put in place to prevent its spread.

Hence, the committee could not continue with public meetings, which generally attracted groups of more than 50 people.

A week later, to the surprise of opposition MPs, the ANC proposed re-establishing the committee.

This was done in June, when the National Assembly adopted a motion to re-establish the committee.

The committee has a deadline of 31 December 2020.

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