Scores of people are attending the North West leg of the public hearings on land expropriation without compensation.
The hearings have begun in Taung and are expected to also take place in Mahikeng and Rustenburg on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) remains opposed to the call for amendment to Section 25 of the constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation.
DA Parliamentarian Carrin Visser says this would have a negative impact on the economy.
Visser says: “We are earning a lot of money through exporting agricultural produce so that will also stop. We will have a negative impact on big farmers, the farmers that are really feeding our nation.
“If you look at it, it’s almost 3% that is at this current stage, macro farmers that are feeding our country, providing enough food. The moment we lose that, we will have not only a famine in South Africa but it will also affect the rest of Africa.”
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) parliamentarian Mathapelo Sewisa on the other hand says there’s no need to panic about food security as South Africans will be able to produce their own food.
She says: “Poverty is going up and unemployment is going up. If we get the land back, we will be able to say that now we can produce more as South Africa, which means there will be more employment.”
“It’s going to stop us from importing things that we can get in South Africa. If the plan is done properly, there won’t be a problem with the food security that everybody is talking about, there will be no crisis.”
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