Legislation: Constitution Amendment Bill hearings postponed

All remaining public hearings on the draft Constitution 18th Amendment Bill have been postponed until further notice (SAnews) – in keeping with measures announced on Sunday by President Cyril Ramaphosa with the aim of containing the spread of Covid-19. According to a public hearings programme published on 3 March, only Limpopo province and the Western Cape will be affected. Hearings have already been conducted as planned in SA’s other seven provinces. In the circumstances, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch, an extension to the new 29 May deadline for tabling the Bill in Parliament cannot be ruled out.

Meanwhile, the ‘hundreds of people’ who have attended each session thus far have made the ‘urgent’ ‘need for land’ very clear (SAnews). This is according to Mathole Motshekga, who chairs the National Assembly ad hoc committee responsible for drafting and introducing legislation amending section 25 of the Constitution to explicitly provide for expropriation without compensation, as one measure for accelerating land reform in the public interest.