Kaya 959 Reporter
The Constitution 18th Amendment Bill to allow land expropriation with no compensation failed in parliament on Tuesday, 7th December.
The DA, FF Plus, ACDP, IFP, and EFF all objected to a report proposing an amendment to section 25 of the Constitution.
ATM, Good Party and UDM also opposed the amendment.
The ANC required the support of the EFF to make up a two-thirds majority.
The governing party, with only 200 members in attendance at the parliament sitting, managed to garner 204 votes. It needed 267 for the bill to pass.
Phemelo Motene spoke to Bulelwa Mabasa who is the Director and Head of the Land Reform Restitution & Tenure Practice And Serves on Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform on what this means going forward.
The land issue
In 1994, the government pledged to redistribute 30% of South Africa’s 60,000 commercial farms to black ownership.
The Natives Land Act inaugurated the apartheid in South Africa in 1913. This left nearly 70% of black South Africans unable to purchase or occupy the land.
White South Africans accounted for less than 10% of the population after the apartheid in South Africa ended in 1994. However, 90% of white South Africans owned the land. In addition, about 72% of white South Africans owned farmland in 2017.
ANC MP Mathole Motshekga, who chaired the ad hoc committee that drafted the bill, said the House had an opportunity by adopting the bill to “eradicate the original sin in the interest of all South Africans”.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema said they voted against the amendment bill in its current format because it represented a “sell-out” arrangement and was a departure from the party’s original motion in 2018.
“The EFF rejects this bill because it’s a complete departure from the radical proposal that was made. Our remain expropriation of land without compensation and will never change.”
The DA said, the failure to amend section 25 was a victory for South Africa: “It’s a victory for the constitution, for all those who believe that property rights lie at the heart of a prosperous society.”
AfriForum has hailed the failure of the Land Expropriation Bill to pass into law before the National Assembly as a “major victory” for land owners saying the country’s ordinary citizens have avoided “catastrophic devastation”.
