Tensions run high at second land debate in Mokopane
During the second open meeting on land expropriation without compensation on Thurday, 28 June, held at the Aboo-A-Tayob Hall in Mokopane, tension was high following the previous meeting in Marble Hall.
MOKOPANE – Parliament’s constitutional review committee has been charged with reviewing section 25 of the Constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation, and is expected to report back to the National Assembly by the end of August.
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Section 25 states that property should be expropriated only for “a public purpose or in the public interest” and “subject to compensation” – the amount of which, and the time and manner of payment, must either have been agreed to by those affected, or decided by a court.
During the meeting on Thursday most attendees and speakers were for the amendment of Section 25 of the constitution while many other farmers like Barry York, party leaders like Valerie Byliefeldt, provincial leader of the National Conservative Party, Afriforum and even Modimolle/Mookgophong Mayor Marlene Van Staden took a stand against the amendment.
Van Staden said: “Section 25 is not the problem. The government is the problem. If they have done what they promised the people, people would have had land by now.”
Limpopo farmer Barry York shared the fact that his land has been taken twice and that it is now broken and the people who owns it are poor. “Changing the constitution will create poverty,” he says.
One of the anonymous speakers who were for the amendment said: “I think section 25 must be implied. We realized that the current government are disorganized. Let the government be the custodian of the land. We are not saying take it from the white and give it to the black, no. Share it equally so.”
Read the full story in Bosveld next week.
