The Constitution has been amended 17 times since it was signed into effect as South Africa's supreme law by President Nelson Mandela on 10 December 1996 in Sharpeville, where 69 anti-pass protesters were shot dead by apartheid police in 1960. But none of these 17 constitutional amendments, including to do with politically expedient floor-crossing, have caused as big a furore as has land expropriation without compensation. Here's a look at the politics, the processes and prerequisites.
Where did it all begin? Well, not the land question, but the process of public hearings and considerations by Parliament's constitutional review committee...
The National Assembly adopted a motion to review the Constitution with a view to an amendment for expropriation without compensation on 27 February 2018 - the 40th anniversary of the death of Robert Sobukwe, the founding president of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), whose slogan is Izwe lethu (the land is ours)....
