DA, FF+ withhold observations

THE Constitutional Review Committee has insisted it will push through with the adoption of the report on the expropriation of land without compensation next Thursday, despite threats by other parties to derail the process.

Co-chairperson of the committee Lewis Nzimande said yesterday they could not afford to have another extension to the process as the deadline for the committee to conclude the process is next week.

This will be in time for the deadline by Parliament for the adoption of the report by the House at the end of the month.

The committee’s insistence about the matter arose after the DA and Freedom Front Plus said they would not make submissions on their recommendations on the expropriation of land without compensation until a report on the written submissions was presented by Parliament.

During the meeting another co-chairperson of the committee, Stan Maila, called for parties to submit their recommendations and observations. These would be fed into the main report of the committee.

Annelie Lotriet of the DA said they needed to follow all processes.

“Members were requested to make recommendations. At this point we have outstanding matters, so we won’t submit recommendations and observations,” said Lotriet.

Her colleague in the DA, Glynnis Breytenbach, agreed. “The DA would like to make recommendations and observations, but we can’t do that until this process has run its full course,” she said.

However, Tebogo Mokwele of the EFF said the DA and FF+ were delaying the process.

She said all parties were informed a week ago to submit their recommendations at yesterday’s meeting, but the two parties had not done so.

She said both the DA and FF+ had said last week they would go to their caucuses on this matter, but now they had new demands.

Corné Mulder of the FF+ said they could not make recommendations until the issue of the written submissions had been resolved.

This has been a sticking point in the committee for some time now.

Maila said parties had until Monday to submit their observations.