DA FS opposes irregular process on Expropriation Bill 

17 May 2016

The Democratic Alliance cannot condone the Voting Mandate to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in support of the Expropriation Bill for the following reasons:

1. The Public Participation process was flawed, with changes to dates and venues made, which ultimately resulted in the last submission received, not being considered before the issuance of the negotiating mandate. 

2. The advertisement for invitation for public participation was not placed in any Afrikaans language provincial newspaper, thus not ensuring that all residents of the province had the opportunity to make submissions.

3. Due to changes to the scheduled meetings of the Portfolio Committee, no final mandate was issued.

4. The voting mandate was decided by the Portfolio Committee without having access to the Minutes of the Select Committee meeting of 10 May 2016.

5. In terms of the Mandating Procedures for Provinces Act 52 of 2008, Chapter 3, Section 7, the Province did not issue a negotiating mandate, and a final mandate to the NCOP, prior to its decision on a voting mandate, thus rendering the voting mandate before this house to be invalid. This legislation requires provinces to issue a negotiating mandate, and a final mandate, before issuing a voting mandate on Section 76 legislation. This did not happen. 

6. It is believed that several clauses in the Bill are unconstitutional.  Amendments were proposed through several submissions, but these were not accepted by either the Portfolio Committee and the Select Committee. 

As such, the DA cannot in good conscience support the voting mandate or the Bill for that matter and we would like our objection to be recorded accordingly. 

Issued by Leona Kleynhans, DA MPL in the Free State Provincial Legislature , 17 May 2016