Sowetan dialogue on land issue

Expropriation topic sparks lively debate

Sowetan, in collaboration with the University of South Africa (Unisa), will host a dialogue on the thorny land debate tomorrow in Midrand.

Under the topic ‘The land debate, whose land is it, by the way’, the dialogue will feature academics, legal experts and political commentators discussing what has become the country’s most contentious topic.

The dialogue will be facilitated by political commentator professor Somadoda Fikeni and will include William Mpofu of Wits University and Lesiba Teffo of Unisa. Nhlanhla Mbatha of the Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership and legal expert Bulelwa Mabasa of Werkmans Attorneys will also attend.

Last week, parliament’s joint constitutional review committee recommended that section 25 of the constitution be amended to explicitly allow for land to be expropriated without compensation. The committee recommended that parliament must table, process and pass a constitutional amendment bill before the end of the fifth (current) democratic parliament in order to allow for expropriation without compensation. It, however, warned that the process would be a lengthy one and they were unable to indicate how long it would take.

On February 27, a motion on land expropriation without compensation was passed in the National Assembly by a majority vote.

The EFF had proposed that an ad hoc committee be established to review and amend section 25 of the constitution to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest‚ without compensation.