Cape Town - Members of the Constitutional Review Committee want people who want to make oral presentations on the expropriation of land without compensation to have constituencies.
They said on Thursday that they did not want people with no constituencies to make oral submissions in the national legislature. The committee is to conduct another round of public hearings in Parliament on the matter.
However, members of Parliament (MPs) were at odds on who to invite to make oral presentations following written submissions.
Out of the list of individuals and organisations who were keen to make oral presentations, MPs said they wanted people with constituencies to appear before them.
Nick Koornhof of the ANC, said they needed to conclude the process soon, and were giving people another opportunity to state their cases.
“I remember the last time we said we will invite people with constituencies and not individuals.
“We also said there will be no political parties, as they are represented in Parliament,” said Koornhof.
Co-chairperson of the committee Lewis Nzimande said they tried to accommodate people with constituencies on the list of people to present in Parliament.
However, Nzimande warned that they would not allow people and organisations which presented in the previous round of public hearings to come to the committee again.
He said they wanted fresh faces that would argue their cases to the committee.
“Those who have been given an opportunity in the previous hearings in Parliament, we will not consider them,” said Nzimande.
The committee decided to turn down a request by the PAC to present to the committee.
Nzimande said the PAC, like 12 other parties in Parliament, was represented in the National Assembly.
He said it did not make sense to give the PAC an opportunity to present to the committee when it had a seat in the national legislature.
A few months ago the committee took a decision, that they would not allow parties to make any submission on the land expropriation matter, as they were already represented in the House.
Nzimande said political parties could come to the committee at any time to make their contributions.
The committee is in a race against time to conclude its report on the expropriation of land without compensation. The committee is expected to hear oral submissions in the next two weeks. MPs had to trim the list of those to make oral submissions from 120 to less than 35.
The committee has set aside two days for the public hearings, and after that, it will prepare a report to be submitted in the House.