Number of seats the EFF garnered following last week’s national election

needing the EFF to enact EWC and the other “highly probable” scenario, in which an amendment is successfully challenged in the Constitutional Court.

“What the smaller parties can do, or any interest group that don’t like the idea, is go to the Constitutional Court and say, we don’t need a two-thirds majority, we need a 75% majority,” he said.

“This view has been expressed by some lobby groups, based on the fact that the constitution says that a fundamental right can only be taken away by a 75% majority in parliament, and there is a high probability that this case could land up in the Constitutional Court.”

Friedman added that even in the case where a two-thirds majority was deemed enough to amend section 25, the ANC and EFF may not be on the same page when it comes to how this legislation would be interpreted. In fact, he said, the ANC didn’t share the EFF’s hunger for expropriation without compensation.

The EFF has repeatedly gone on record stating that government should be the custodian of land, a far more extreme approach than proposed by the ANC.

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela argued recently at a women only conference on land – comprising of law experts from around the country – that it was possible for parliamentarians to agree to an amendment of section 25 which did not violate property rights.

“It depends on what is contained in the clause and the nature of the amendment,” she said.

“If the amendment simply clarifies the circumstances under which land may be expropriated without compensation, that on its own would not necessarily translate to a violation of the constitution.”