You can only assume the pressure was immense. For the ANC national executive committee to announce it would seek to change the Constitution to accommodate the expropriation of land without compensation is a huge change of heart. But as the process of public hearings into the proposition has moved from region to region over the past few weeks the outcome has become inevitable. There are too many poor people in this country for even the most reasonable of debates to proceed. As it is, the national executive committee "lekgotla" on Monday and Tuesday, baited by constant hectoring from the EFF, finally lost its collective nerve and forced its president to announce that the party would no longer even wait for the parliamentary public process to finish. The Constitution will be amended to explicitly allow for expropriation without compensation. It is a big moment for SA, and for President Cyril Ramaphosa. His reservations about expropriation without compensation are well known. But even a...

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