Chairperson of the ad hoc committee tasked with amending Section 25 of the Constitution, Mathole Motshekga. (Jan Gerber, News24)

• The ad hoc committee amending Section 25 of the Constitution will visit Limpopo and the Northern Cape next week.
• The DA is concerned about the time allowed to do something as serious as amending the Constitution.
• “We cannot afford to mess it up,” committee chairperson Mathole Motshekga said.

Amid deadline pressure, the Ad Hoc Committee to Initiate and Introduce Legislation Amending Section 25 of the Constitution to allow expropriation without compensation will head to Limpopo and the Northern Cape next week.

The committee met on Friday to finalise its programme for the public hearings and received a legal opinion on how it should handle people with co-morbidities in terms of public participation.

The legal opinion requires reasonableness in the logistical arrangement.

MPs required time to study the legal opinion before it comes to a decision in consultation with the committee staff.

The committee also resolved to add a district to its Northern Cape itinerary to cater for the vast area of the province and because, as committee chairperson Mathole Motshekga put it, “the people of the area are centrally affected”.  

Next week, the committee will split into two groups. Group A will go to Limpopo, where it will have its first public hearing on Thursday in Vhembe. The following day it will be in the Greater Letaba District.

On Saturday, it will be in Sekhukhune and conclude in Polokwane on Sunday.

Group B’s first hearing will be in De Aar on Thursday, Kimberley on Friday, Upington on Saturday and Springbok on Sunday.

The Western Cape will be the committee’s final destination for public hearings in the last week of October, while it will consider reports in Parliament in early November.

When the committee was re-established by the National Assembly in June, it was given a deadline of 31 December to finish its work. The date of 19 November is set down for consideration of the final draft bill.

DA MP Werner Horn expressed concern about the timelines of the programme, saying he did not think they could finish something as serious as amending the Constitution within that timeline.

“We are under serious pressure to conclude this process,” Motshekga agreed. “We cannot afford to mess it up.”

He said they must meet the deadline.