Full Bench to hear constitutional amendment challenge
A full Bench of judges will hear AfriForum's case in which the lobby group is seeking to bar Parliament from debating a report calling for the amendment of the Constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation. The matter will be heard in the Western Cape High Court (Cape Town) on Thursday, 29 November 2018.
According to a TimesLIVE report, AfriForum applied for an urgent interdict to prevent the report of the Joint Constitutional Review Committee on amending section 25 of the Constitution from being debated and possibly adopted by the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces this week.
It also wants the report to be set aside pending the outcome of a judicial review of the committee's process.
The National Assembly is scheduled to debate and possibly adopt the report next Tuesday.
The report recommends the Constitution be amended to include an explicit clause which provides for expropriation of land without compensation. AfriForum is arguing that Parliament’s public participation process was inadequate and that the process followed by the committee was flawed and failed to consider hundreds of thousands of written submissions opposing the constitutional amendment.
Yesterday, Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe postponed the hearing to Thursday, saying due to public interest around land expropriation, a full Bench of judges led by the Judge President of the Western Cape High Court, John Hlophe, would hear the matter.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
