Parliament’s portfolio committee on public works is set to vote on the controversial Expropriation Bill next week after MPs considered the legislation clause by clause on Tuesday.

The bill, if passed, would replace the Expropriation Act of 1975 and be a law of general application in cases where government needed to expropriate land for public purpose or in the public interest.

African National Congress (ANC) MPs indicated on Wednesday they would support the reworked bill, while opposition parties objected to sections of the bill.

“We’ll be supporting the whole bill. We have made sure that all the clauses are in line with the Constitution,” said ANC MP Celiwe Madlopha.

Madlopha said the bill was in line with the Constitution in that it provided that property could not arbitrarily be expropriated, and that market value of the property not be the only criteria to be used, but that the current use of the property, the history of the acquisition and the purpose of expropriation be considered.

“We think it will be fair because as a ruling party we must look at interests of all the citizens of the country, without discriminating – our Constitution calls for that. We can’t say there must not be compensation, but also we saying they must look at the criteria in the Constitution…”

The Democratic Alliance (DA) objected to several clauses of the bill, saying it would vote against the legislation in its current form.

“The whole thing rests on the definition of property and the mere fact that they say the definition is not limited to land, so that means anything – shares, intellectual rights, pensions – and that’s our biggest concern that is huge,” said DA MP Anchen Dreyer.

As expected, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are insisting that government should be able to carry out land dispossession without compensating its owners.

“We are disagreeing with compensation but the entirety of the bill we are fine. We are just proposing that the bill should say expropriation without compensation,” said EFF MP Marshall Dlamini.

UDM MP Mncedisi Filtane disagreed, saying expropriation without compensation would not only affect white South Africans who benefitted from apartheid.

“There is no way we would be opposed to compensation because even if one thinks that a lot of properties that may be expropriated are in white people’s hands, there are many many properties which carry a lot of value which are now in the hands of Africans and so if I oppose that section of the bill, I would be saying people who have always been disadvantaged should continue to suffer,” said Filtane.

MPs will meet next week Tuesday to vote on the bill and to table their party’s views.

If passed, the bill would go to the National Assembly for debate and approval.