The Democratic Alliance said that it would not allow the ANC to sneak the Expropriation Bill through Parliament.
This, after the ANC, announced on Monday that it would be pushing ahead to expropriate land without compensation and review section 25 of the Constitution.
The governing party held a land summit this past weekend with ANC national executive committee member Ronald Lamola saying that delegates at the summit ''were clear'' that it was time to implement the December conference resolution on land redistribution.
However, Lamola said that section 25 should be tested through immediate expropriation by the government to counter views that the clause cannot be used to expropriate without a constitutional amendment.
Reacting to the news, DA MP, Thandeka Mbabama, said that they believe that the Expropriation Bill, which was sent back to Parliament by former President Jacob Zuma due to a lack of public consultation, is fundamentally flawed and will not allow the ANC to pass it without due process and consultation.
“Parliament is an independent, multi-party institution and it does not take instructions from Luthuli House. We will not let the ANC reduce Parliament to a rubber-stamping institution that absolves the government from its policy failures,” she said.
Mbabama said that the ANC’s newfound enthusiasm for the Expropriation Bill is frankly suspicious and calls into question the reasoning behind their support for the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution.
She said Parliament’s legislative processes should be allowed to run its course, free from outside interference and the DA will not allow the Expropriation Bill to proceed without broad-based participation.
“The Expropriation Bill is not the panacea for the rampant corruption and failed policies of the ANC which have stifled land reform in South Africa,” Mbabama said.
She said the DA wants South Africans to be real owners of land with the right to choose, the ANC and the EFF want people to be permanent tenants on the land.
