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EFF supporters clashed with police and security guards who blocked the entrance to the hall. (Photo: Lucas Ledwaba)
A man was detained by police after entering the scene with a firearm.
A parliamentary public hearing scheduled for Sunday in Polokwane on the land expropriation bill was abandoned after a day-long clash between the ANC and the EFF.
The co-chair of the Ad Hoc Committee to initiate and introduce legislation amending section 25 of the Constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation, Thomas Bongo, said they canceled the hearing for security reasons.
The bill for the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was published for comment at the end of last year with the aim of amending the Constitution to establish that when land is expropriated and any improvements to it for agrarian reform purposes, the amount of the compensation payable may be zero.
The matter was the subject of heated debate in Parliament after the EFF previously tabled a motion to amend section 25 of the Constitution to allow expropriation without compensation. The ANC initially refused to support the motion in the National Assembly, but later did so, paving the way for public hearings across the country.
The committee is chaired by Dr. Mathole Motshekga from the ANC. However, Sunday’s session in Polokwane was chaired by Bongo rather than Motshekga, who presided over the hearings in the Northern Cape.
But the session did not take place as scheduled after a day-long dispute that at times threatened to escalate violence when EFF members tried to force their way into the room, which ANC members had filled, in the municipal offices of Polokwane.
This was found to be in contravention of Covid-19 lockdown regulations, and Bongo ordered everyone to leave the room so they could enter based on a list compiled before the hearings.
This was also to allow them to go through Covid-19 procedures such as hand disinfection and removal of contact details.
But EFF supporters, who were present in large numbers, refused to allow the process to go ahead, saying it was a tactic to ensure that the audience was dominated by members of the ANC.
EFF supporters clashed with police and security guards who blocked the entrance to the hall. The ANC members in yellow T-shirts were in the parking lot waiting for their leaders to address them.
The tense situation worsened after 2 pm when a man wearing an ANC T-shirt entered a corridor adjoining the hearing with a firearm at his waist. EFF supporters, who had been camping at the main entrance since early morning, attacked the man and tried to disarm him.
Police intervened and led the man into the corridor, where they took the weapon from him. He was later seen leaving the corridor through a side entrance, accompanied by police, with EFF members crying out for his blood.
Bongo said that when they arrived at 10:30 a.m. there were about 1,000 people crowded into the room, singing and not maintaining social distancing as required by lockdown regulations.
He said they asked everyone to leave the room so that those who were registered to attend could have first preference. The meeting was adjourned to 2 pm to allow for that process but, he said, when they returned the situation had not changed.
Bongo said the ANC members had arrived before the EFF group, but the red brigade stormed the packed hall after it was announced that it was in contravention of Covid-19 regulations. He said the situation was considered unsafe as some people were carrying firearms.
EFF deputy Ciliesta Motsepe blamed the ANC for abandoning the hearing, saying that committee members had tried to get more members of her party to participate in the meeting at the expense of their comrades.
However, Emmanuel Mongwe, president of the Peter Mokaba region of the ANC Youth League, accused members of “other parties” of disrupting the seating arrangements because they did not arrive on time. He denied that the man carrying a firearm was his member.
Bongo could not say whether the hearing would take place at another time, adding that the matter would be discussed before the National Assembly.
The committee is expected to conclude its public hearings this week after a series of hearings in the Western Cape. DM
