Parliament - The Democratic Alliance said on Thursday it has urged Speaker Thandi Modise to ensure that the committee tasked with drafting a constitutional amendment on land reform note the warning from the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land that the process risked undermining the core values of the Constitution.
DA spokeswoman Glynnis Breytenbach said the panel's report made it plain that changing section 25 of the Constitution was not necessary, as it already allowed for expropriation without compensation, and that any amendment aimed at large-scale expropriation without payment would be unconstititutional in itself.
"Our letter to the Speaker requests that sections of the final report of the land panel must be discussed and read into the record of the ad hoc committee on land.
We believe that the amendment of the Constitution would be a move that will condemn our economy to inevitable collapse," Breytenbach said.
She added that the barriers to land reform lay not in the Constitution but in incompetence and corruption.