Pleas and division at Westonaria land hearings
A range of citizens in heated debate for and against amending section 25
Dressed in a bathrobe and pajamas, an angry and tearful Zanele Madi broke down as she told the Joint Constitutional Review Committee in Zulu that section 25 of the Constitution should be amended to allow for land expropriation without compensation. She said she had been evicted from her home three days earlier in Fleurhof, Johannesburg. It was her "lived experience" that made her support the amendment, Madi told the committee hearing in Westonaria, almost an hour’s drive from her former home. Land is an fraught issue in Gauteng, which faces a major housing backlog. The shortage fuels anger that spills onto the streets as people crammed in overcrowded spaces, often with nowhere else to go, vent their frustration. Speaker after speaker, many of whom were aligned with the Economic Freedom Fighters, made passionate pleas for the Constitution to be amended. Equally emotional Westonaria residents, who were fewer in number, argued for no change. Economic issues dominated the calls for a s...
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