ANC wants to use constitution to expropriate land without compensation

The ANC wants the government to use Section 25 of the constitution immediately to expropriate land without compensation.

At Luthuli House yesterday, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said the party had asked its subcommittees for an urgent programme of action to undertake expropriation in an orderly fashion.

He said the party had adopted the report of the land summit which discussed the matter two weeks ago.

“[The national executive has resolved to] immediately use Section 25 of the constitution to press ahead with the expropriation of land to test the argument that the constitution does permit expropriation of land without compensation‚” he said.

Should it be found that the section impeded expropriation without compensation‚ the party had resolved that the constitution would then be changed.
This has been an argument made by a number of legal minds, including judges and advocates specialising in constitutional matters.

Advocate Tembela Ngcukaitobi‚ author of the book The Land is Ours‚ has also made similar arguments.

Magashule said the ANC also wanted to accelerate both the Land Expropriation and the Land Restitution bill to create greater clarity and that the national executive had called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to move swiftly and appoint an expert panel on land reform.

“We have called on municipalities to ensure that they give people [serviced] sites so that we speed up this programme of expropriation of land without compensation‚ ” Magashule said. – TimesLIVE