IFP PRESS STATEMENT BY: 
Mr Henry Combrinck

11th June 2008

The IFP is angered by the chaos that has accompanied the ongoing public hearings in connection with the controversial Land Expropriation Bill in KwaZulu Natal.

The three public hearings scheduled for KwaZulu Natal are being marred by organisational chaos, the sessions are concentrated within a narrow perimeter of Hluhluwe, Pongola and Newcastle, and the opening hearing in Hluhluwe is not even attended by the members of the Public Works portfolio committee in the National Assembly which is handling the bill concerned.

"We in the IFP cannot believe that a bill of such vast significance for the future of agriculture and enterprise in South Africa is being treated with such contempt by its own sponsors in government and Parliament," said IFP Chief Whip in the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Parliament Henry Combrinck who attended the opening hearing in Hluhluwe.

The IFP is concerned that the opening public hearing into a national bill was chaired by a member of a provincial legislature. The party is equally distressed by the fact that a substantial part of the farming community in KwaZulu Natal whom the bill affects will be excluded from the hearings due to organisational hiccups.

"It is also doubtful whether the public hearing in Hluhluwe can have any practical bearing on the outcome of the bill given the absence of the portfolio committee members who oversee the bill's passage through the National Assembly," said Combrinck.