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The ad hoc committee set up to amend section 25 of the Constitution wants to hear from experts before it sinks its teeth into the task of amending the Constitution to allow expropriation without compensation.
The committee met on Thursday for a briefing by Parliament's legal services on the process to amend the Constitution and to consider its draft programme.
Chairperson Thoko Didiza said the committee would receive a briefing from Parliament's legal counsel on AfriForum's court case against the Joint Constitutional Review Committee. It would also be briefed by the Land Claims Court and receive a briefing on the report of the Constitutional Review Committee.
She said the committee should propose experts such as advocates Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and Wim Trengove to address it.
Committee members supported these two names and also suggested former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, Deputy Judge President of KwaZulu-Natal Isaac Madondo, former Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs and academic Ruth Hall.
Other suggestions from the committee included the valuer general, the Legal Resources Centre and Land Claims Commission.
The committee heard that in developing a policy in terms of rule 274 of the National Assembly, among other things, it would have to indicate which subsections of section 25 should be amended, expanded or deleted. The committee will further have to develop a bill.
As the bill will be a section 74 bill, legal services suggested that it be sent to the National House of Traditional Leaders, the public and provincial legislatures for comment, reads a statement from Parliament.
The committee was appointed by the National Assembly last year after both houses of Parliament adopted the report of the Joint Constitutional Review Committee, which recommended that the Constitution should be amended to allow expropriation without compensation.
