Land expropriation hearings to be held in W Cape

THE public hearings on land expropriation are at the tailend of oral submissions, with Parliament’s joint constitutional review committee hosting hearings in the Western Cape from today until Saturday.

This is the last leg of their journey to the nine provinces where the public was asked to make oral submissions on whether they supported or opposed changing the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.

Parliament instructed the committee to determine whether a review of Section 25 of the Constitution and other clauses were necessary to allow for the state to expropriate land.

The four-day Western Cape hearings will bring two months of nationwide hearings to an end. A delegation from the committee will be in Oudts– hoorn today to get input from residents.

The chairperson of the committee, Vincent Smith, said the last two months had been “gruelling”, but the committee was “extremely pleased” to see the public out in numbers.

Smith said the committee had underestimated the interest the hearings would garner, and only expected around 300 people per hearing. “We have to apologise because we definitely underestimated the interest in this event. We have seen about 800 to 900 people at every hearing in the different provinces, and that was not what we expected,” Smith said.

He commended those who submitted oral representations, saying people were very tolerant of each other.

“People have had a high tolerance of each other’s views, and although each was very set on their views, they allowed the next person to speak. There were exceptions, but overall the hearings have been going extremely well, and we are fully satisfied with it all,” Smith said.

The committee has heard a variety of submissions from farmers, farming associations, emerging black agriculturists, the general public and political parties.