# MEDIA RELEASE 30 January 2020 – FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/2020/01/31/media-release-30-january-2020-for-immediate-distribution/
- Published: 2020-01-31T07:34:43+02:00
- Author: dearSA

![section-25-land expropriation](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/
2019/12/20191215/section-25-land-expropriation2-1024x453.jpg "section-25-land expropriation2")

**Victory for participative democracy as Parliament extends deadline for public 
submissions on land expropriation amendment**

24 hours after non-profit organisation DearSA announced Parliament’s IT servers 
were blocking public submissions on the proposed change in the Constitution to allow
land expropriation, the Parliamentary committee responsible for the issue extended
the deadline for comments to 29 February.

Earlier in the week, Parliament was adamant that there would be no extensions beyond
the previously agreed deadline of Friday 31 January 2020 – despite requests from
many other organisations and parties.

After much consultation with parliament, DearSA on Thursday morning received notification
from the committee that it had changed its tune, giving the public another month
to make submissions.

Within the last ten days, reports began surfacing of submissions that were being
rejected by Parliament’s IT servers for “unacceptable content”. This triggered a
public outcry and prompted participative democracy organisation DearSA – which offers
a web-based platform for citizens to make official submissions – to approach Parliament
to explain why certain submissions were being rejected.

DearSA founder Rob Hutchinson says Parliamentary IT servers may have spam filters
set too high, but in other cases, certain email domains appear to have been blacklisted.

“We are pleased that the comment period has been extended. It may have been technical
issues blocking submissions, but either way, it is unacceptable. When we inspected
the blocked emails, we could not find anything offensive or unacceptable about the
content. Parliament cannot appear to be censoring views – consciously or otherwise–
on such a vital national issue,” says Hutchinson. “All of the blocked submissions
we have seen have one thing in common: they are opposed to the Constitutional amendment
allowing land expropriation without compensation”.

“This is, without doubt, the most serious Constitutional issue facing South Africa
since the birth of democracy in 1994. It is vital that as many voices as possible
are heard from all points of view on this issue,” says Rob Hutchinson, founder of
Dear South Africa, who has so far facilitated more than 160,000 public responses
to this amendment. 

More than 80% have come out against the amendment to the Constitution that would
allow expropriation of land without compensation.

This compares with 57% who were against the proposed amendment when DearSA ran a
similar campaign last year.

The web page for submissions can be accessed here: [https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/constitution-eighteenth-amendment-bill/](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/constitution-eighteenth-amendment-bill/)

Human rights advocate Mark Oppenheimer says Parliament must be seen to be observing
the utmost transparency around this highly sensitive issue. He says it is well known
that all embassies in South Africa are closely watching the manner in which Parliament
is handling the land expropriation issue, and reporting back to their governments.

Various groups have already threatened legal action over the land expropriation 
issue. “If Parliament is seen to be trying to smuggle the issue through without 
giving citizens a proper opportunity to have a say in the matter, this opens up 
new potential avenues of legal challenge,” says Oppenheimer.

**–ENDS– **

Issued by: Dear South Africa

Contact: Rob Hutchinson: 0845574828

Email: rob.hutchinson@dearsouthafrica.co.za

_DearSA is a registered South African non-profit which operates independently of
government and free from any political party influence._