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DA to keep fighting land bill
02/06/2008 16:41 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has not given up on the parliamentary process dealing with the Expropriation Bill, party leader Helen Zille said on Monday.
Briefing the media in Cape Town, Zille said the fact that DA MP Sydney Opperman last week staged a walkout during public hearings on the measure, did not mean that the party would no longer participate in further parliamentary processes.
"He will stick very much to Parliamentary hearings," she said.
If passed, the legislation will give government powers to expropriate land from property owners.
The government says the proposed law would help speed up the land redistribution process.
It says the process has been delayed by the current willing-seller willing-buyer provision contained in the existing Expropriate Act.
Unconstitutional
However, Zille said "unconstitutional" clauses in the measure posed a serious threat to the country's constitution as well as economy.
"The bill in its current form constitutes a full-on assault on some of the most fundamental principles of our constitution and should be of concern to everyone.
"It will threaten the very foundation South Africa's economy - the security of properly rights - leading to massive disinvestment and capital flight," she said.
While the party would continue trying to convince the government not to proceed with the measure in its current form, the DA would not hesitate going the route of the Constitutional Court if its calls were ignored.
Zille disputed the government's position that the measure would benefit the poor.
"The DA fully supports a sustainable and equitable land reform land process. But the Expropriation Bill...will bring about exactly the opposite result by undermining a legally sound land reform," she said.
- SAPA
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