Amendment unlikely – Cronin

Section 25 of the constitution is unlikely to be amended because the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) cannot find each other on the matter, Jeremy Cronin said.

Cronin, a former leader in the SA Communist Party, was addressing the ANC’s celebration of 66 years of the Freedom Charter on Saturday afternoon.

“I suspect we will not achieve an amendment of the constitution because we would need EFF support to do so – and I think that they’re going to refuse, for grandstanding reasons,” said Cronin.

“They have a very different view what expropriation would be, and basically they want state ownership of all land.

“They want to dispossess black people who have ownership, through either communal land ownership or have some kind of tenure of one kind or another.” Cronin pointed out that, even should there be a constitutional amendment, the Expropriation Bill would have to be changed to accommodate it.

But, he added, restitution is already provided for in Section 25, which says compensation must be “just and equitable, and not necessarily market-based compensation”.

“We effectively failed to use what has been available to us.”

Former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa, who has been leading the party’s task team on land expropriation, told the online gathering the EFF had snubbed the task team at the last meeting.

A meeting, which EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu earlier said would have taken place with ANC officials this past Wednesday, was called off.