The ANC wants government to immediately test whether section 25 of the Constitution allows for the expropriation of land without compensation. ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule told the media yesterday the party had requested its sub-committees to come up with a programme of action in the next two months in order to undertake expropriation in an orderly fashion.

Magashule said the party had adopted the report of the land summit which had discussed the matter two weeks ago, notes a TimesLIVE report. He said the NEC (the party’s national executive committee) had resolved to immediately use section 25 of the Constitution to press ahead with expropriation ‘in order to test the argument that the Constitution does permit expropriation of land without compensation’.

He said should it be found that the section impeded expropriation without compensation‚ the party had resolved that the Constitution would then be changed.

This has been an argument made by a number of legal minds, including judges and advocates specialising in constitutional matters. As reported in Legalbrief Today, Advocate Tembela Ngcukaitobi‚ who recently published his book, The Land is Ours‚ was among those who argued it was not necessary to change the Constitution in order to expropriate land without compensation.

Deputy President David Mabuza also touched on expropriation without compensation in Parliament yesterday, saying it was one of several options to restore land to people that were deprived under apartheid. ‘You will know that it’s not only the land held in private hands (we are targeting); we have land that is under state ownership … that land is going to be expropriated and will be given to the people …. These people must work the land and government will assist. That is going to happen. In all these efforts we will try very hard not to disrupt (agricultural] production.’

Full TimesLIVE report