The National Assembly has failed to pass the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill.
It was aimed at amending Section 25 of the Constitution, which would allow for land expropriation without compensation.
The ANC failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required to have the bill passed. A total of 204 members of parliament had voted in favour of the bill, while 145 voted against it. There were no abstentions.
A majority is achieved with 267 votes. Before the vote, the DA, EFF, ACDP, IFP, and Freedom Front Plus had already voiced their objections. But the ANC’s Dr Mathole Motshekga says that the amendment must happen to eradicate the “original sin” of land dispossession.
However, Afrocentric researcher, Jackie Shandu says that the DA, Freedom Front Plus, and other parties opposed to the bill, fear that they will be stripped of their minority hold over the country’s wealth.
[Picture: @ParliamentofRSA / Twitter]
