Cape Town - The committee tasked to amend the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation on Monday decided to request Parliament to grant it another 30 day extension to complete its work.
In its agenda for Monday, was the consideration of a draft bill from the parliamentary legal services after parties were asked on Friday to hold bilateral meetings in an attempt to reach consensus.
As the parliamentary legal services started with its presentation, EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu said the bilaterals did not reach consensus on how they were to handle Section 25 of the constitution.
“Thus far the bilateral have not given outcome which we anticipated come out of it. The very purpose of bilaterals was to come closer to each other.
“We have not yet got to that stage so in the interests of democratic engagement and consensus building, we propose we allow space for further engagement until we reach consensus in terms of what to be contained in the amended Section 25,” Shivambu said.
Committee chairperson Mathole Motshekga ruled that the proposal should be made later, and that there was a need to record progress made so that they could identify key issues to justify the request for postponement.
The parliamentary legal services was then allowed to continue with its presentation, which included recommendation for the request to extend scope of the committee on some clauses and holding further public hearings.
The ANC also made its presentation on the proposed text of the draft bill not captured in the previous meeting.
Shivambu accused the legal services of persisting to strong-arming them on the public consultation and called for it to step aside.
He also said his party and the ANC were discussing the issue of land custodianship, 1913 cut-off date for redistribution and use of nil or no compensation.
“We are pleading for the committee to consider that we postpone this process until we find each other.”
He also said there was scope to find each other on all the matters.
Motshekga came to the defence of the legal services saying that they had to do things within the legislation, constitution and rules.
He agreed that there were areas the EFF and ANC wanted to engage in.
Motshekga, however, said the committee was not engaged in an EFF and ANC process.
“It is a process of Parliament and all parties represented here. We are to consider the views of other parties,” he said.
Freedom Front Plus leader Corne Mulder said they had difficulty with the EFF and ANC proposals and amendments, which were not consulted on.
ANC MP Mina Lesoma said there would be continuous persuasion of each other and they did not want to come with half-baked products to the House.
She said her party was in support of the extension and the request for extension should be for 30 days.
DA MP Annelie Lotriet said there were many things they were still to discuss.
Lotriet said they were in support of a postponement, and that it should not be prescriptive and focus on proposals EFF.
Although the DA and EFF preferred a 30-day extension, the committee settled for a 30-day extension.
“We are to go through a memo and the period is 30 days. We are saying we will need a special sitting of Parliament because this matter may not be dragged further than we have done now,” Motshekga said.
Political Bureau