CAPE TOWN, June 7 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday petitioned President Jacob Zuma to refer the "job-killing" Expropriation Bill back to Parliament.
"This follows advice from our lawyers that this Bill is unconstitutional... because of the procedural irregularities which characterized its passing," the DA said.
This needs to be rectified by Parliament and the president cannot in good conscience assent to it, until it has been brought in line with the Constitution, it said.
Parliament in May approved the Bill that would allow the government to make compulsory purchases of land to speed up redressing racial disparities.
South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), facing local elections in August, has promised to speed up plans to redistribute land, which remains predominantly in white hands two decades after the end of apartheid.
The Bill, which sets out the legislative requirements for the State to lay claim to land for public purpose or in the pubic interest, was passed after ruling ANC and some MPs of opposition parties voted in favour of the Bill, which was slightly amended by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
The DA maintains that the chief concern with this Bill is that the Bill, in its current incarnation, violates the Constitution with specific reference to the right to property and the right not to be evicted without an order of the court as distilled in the Constitution.
Additionally, the Bill was met with fatal procedural errors because it was not passed in a manner consistent with the Constitution and should be referred back to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to fix these errors, according to the DA.
Specifically, this Bill needs to be subject to more public participation, it adds.
"The DA has fought relentlessly throughout the duration of the fifth Parliament to ensure that bills that are passed are in line with the Constitution," said Anchen Dreyer, DA Deputy Federal Chairperson.
"If the President is at all serious about the Constitution in general, and property rights in particular, he will not sign the Bill," Dreyer said.
Some economists and farming groups have said the Bill could hit investment and production at a time when South Africa is emerging from a major drought.
But the government says the redistribution process needs to be accelerated, to rectify past wrongs and provide opportunities to the previously excluded. It has also said it will stick to the law and not follow the example of Zimbabwe, where farm seizures have destroyed the economy.
After taking power in 1994, the ANC promised to transfer 30 percent of the farmland to blacks, but only a third of the target has been achieved.
Experts estimate that about eight million hectares of farmland have been transferred to black owners since the end of apartheid.
