Land grab bill withdrawn

2008-09-29 17:02

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - It was announced in Parliament on Monday that the department of public works has finally withdrawn the troubled Expropriation Bill. Monday's announcement said the bill was in fact withdrawn last Tuesday.

The bill which would have allowed the minister to expropriate land and other property and to set the compensation to be paid, was considered to be unconstitutional by a senior Parliamentary law adviser, and committee consideration of it simply ground to a halt.

The bill was fiercely opposed by the opposition Democratic Alliance and Freedom Front Plus, and was the centre of a protest alliance set up by AfriForum, the pressure group established by the trade union Solidarity which also included an arm of the FW de Klerk Foundation.

The former minister for public works, Thoko Didiza, said in answer to a Parliamentary question last week that the legal counsel sought by her department advised that the bill was entirely constitutional.

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