POLITICAL parties have agreed that the term of the parliamentary committee on land expropriation which ends on Friday be allowed to lapse and that it be reconstituted when it was suitable to continue with its work.
This after the committee came up for discussion during the meeting of the National Assembly programme committee on Thursday.
IFP MP Narend Singh was the first to propose to the National Assembly's programme committee that the committee be allowed to lapse and be reconstituted.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said the governing party fully supported the proposal and that the committee be reconstituted at the earliest when Parliament held a sitting in the next term.
ACDP MP Steve Swart said it was not the first time it happened and that it happened before.
"I understand the sensitivity around the issue. There is accommodation for that in the rules," Swart said.
EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi said the decision was painful because her party's position on the matter was well known.
"It talks to public hearings which are going to be difficult during Covid-19," she said.
"Even if we don't support that we have no choice because of public hearings tha can't take place during Covid-19 pandemic," Mkhaliphi said.
DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone said it made sense to allow the committee to lapse.
"We have no idea yet the way the virus will work" Mazzone said.
National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise said: "Nobody is against allowing the committee to lapse and reconstituted as at when it is suitable to finish its work."