Parliament’s ad hoc committee on amending Section 25 of the constitution has adopted the ANC’s proposals, while rejecting the formulation offered by the Economic Freedom Fighters, as well as proposals from the Freedom Front Plus.
The ANC’s proposals included a recognition of the principle of ‘just and equitable’ compensation, as well as provisions ‘to foster conditions which enable state custodianship of certain land’.
The EFF wanted the amendment to specify that all land would be under state custodianship – effectively the nationalisation of land.
While the ANC-dominated committee accepted the ANC’s proposals, it is unclear whether the amendment will pass in Parliament. With a two-thirds majority required to do so, the ANC would need the backing of the EFF. The EFF has pledged not to support the amendment, as it is not sufficiently radical.
The ANC proposed that the public should be given three weeks to comment on the new formulation.
The Institute of Race Relations has warned that despite the apparent differences in position between the ANC and EFF, both were seeking largely the same thing – custodianship of land, and the amendment of the Constitution so as to increase the state’s latitude to take all manner of property.
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