Opposition parties and other groups have criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa for jumping the gun on the land expropriation debate.
On Tuesday night, Ramaphosa, speaking as president of the ANC, went on television saying that the majority of South Africans support land expropriation without compensation even though parliamentary public hearings were yet to be completed.
Ramaphosa said the ANC national executive committee (NEC) had decided that it would vote for the amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution, which will allow government to expropriate privately owned land without compensation.
The NEC had made the decision during its two-day Lekgotla, and says it was based on countrywide public hearings.
But AgriSA executive director Omri van Zyl said the NEC jumped the gun.
“We have not finished the process where we are actively participating. The consultations are going on in other parts of the country, which makes it wrong to make conclusions now,” said Van Zyl.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane accused Ramaphosa of being “reckless and irresponsible”.
“We will oppose this move in Parliament with all our might. We will never support a land policy that takes economic power away from South Africans and hands it to a corrupt government,” he said.