Public urged to express views freely on expropriation

PARLIAMENT has urged the public to exercise freedom of speech when public hearings on land expropriation without compensation begin this week.

“The constitution protects everybody to express his or her views without fear or favour.

“People should express their views even if I don’t like their views,” co-chairperson of the constitutional review committee Vincent Smith said yesterday.

“They can speak their mind and they should not feel intimidated,” he added.

Two teams of parliamen tarians will hold hearings in provinces starting with Northern Cape and Limpopo tomorrow and on Wednesday respectively.

The hearings are a sequel to the motion adopted early this year to look into mechanisms of expropriating land without compensation with a view to reviewing section 25 of the constitution.

Smith said they would ensure that South Africans spoke in their mother tongues and that translation services would be provided.

Parliament’s spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said the national legislature would strive to ensure that as many citizens as possible were provided with an opportunity to raise their views in the interest of participatory democracy.

“The committee reassures the nation that the process will be done in a manner protected both by the laws of our country and the constitution,” Mothapo said.

He said the hearings would be carried live on the Parliament TV channel either through delayed or live broadcasts on channel 408 on DStv.

The committee had received more than 700 000 written submissions as of June 15.

A service provider was to be appointed last Friday to capture the submissions and then prepare a report for the committee ahead of oral submissions to be held in Parliament.

Smith said they planned for a minimum of 350 people at the public hearings, which were scheduled to run from 11am until 4pm.

“We catered, from a security and planning point of view, for 350. It could be 350 or much more.”

Smith reiterated yesterday that no lunch would be served at the hearings.

At the committee’s meeting last week, security at the hearings was uppermost for some MPs, with Cope’s Deidre Carter saying it was important for parliamentarians and the public.

The ACDP’s Steve Swart demanded the assurance that every person would be given the opportunity to express their views and would not be intimidated in any way.

Smith said the security cluster, working together with Parliament’s protection services, had told them everything that needed to be done had been done.

“They have assured us that on a daily basis they will brief us about developments for the next day,” he said.