Expropriation bill shelved

2008-08-26 18:19

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - Parliament's committee on public works has finally announced that it has shelved the highly contested Expropriation Bill which would have allowed the state to take over property under much easier terms than current legislation allows.

The bill which parliament's own legal advisers reckoned was not constitutional - principally because it tried to prevent recourse to the courts for people whose property had been taken - has not appeared on any committee programmes since the end of public hearings on the draft bill two months ago.

But the chair of the committee Thandi Tobias-Pokolo declined up until now to say that the committee was not proceeding with it. On Tuesday she relented and announced its withdrawal until further notice. She blamed a lack of "proper consultation".

However the chairperson said the committee hoped that the bill would be reintroduced in the next parliament

She said the decision was reached after consultation with various stakeholders both within and outside Parliament and in the interest of broader consultation and effective public participation. A statement she issued said: "Advice sought by the portfolio committee indicated that more time was needed to ensure that a wide variety of stakeholders had been consulted and that public participation may have been insufficient to see the bill through."

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