Controversial ANC bigwig Fransman slates party for not siding with EFF on land expropriation

Suspended ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman has attacked his party for not voting with the EFF in parliament on Tuesday on the expropriation of land.

EFF leader Julius Malema had brought a motion asking for ANC to change the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation.

Malema offered his party's support to the ANC to make that happen.

A change of the constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote. Had the ANC voted with the EFF‚ it would have achieved the required threshold.

However‚ the ANC rejected Malema's motion and voted against it‚ with the DA.

The motion came after President Jacob Zuma renewed calls for radical economic transformation‚ which includes land reform. Malema criticised the ANC after the vote‚ saying the party never implemented its promises.

Fransman said the party had a opportunity during the debate‚ but failed to take it.

"We failed to honour our own commitment to put one of the mechanisms in place to fast-track the issue of land redistribution‚" said Fransman.

He said the ANC had clearly stated the need to address land redistribution in many of its policy conferences.

"The key destruction of colonial and apartheid rule [is] related to land dispossession and therefore the most crucial intervention in our democracy will be the issue of land and will remain that‚" he said.

He said the party had failed to uphold its own targets on land reform.

Fransman called for the scrapping of the willing buyer‚ willing seller policy.

"Let's mobilise and call on the ANC in parliament to review the position taken yesterday. Let's put petty issues aside with other parties and agree on a mechanism in fast-tracking such‚ including constitutional amendment‚" he said.

Fransman has been suspended from the party by the ANC's national disciplinary committee after an accusation of sexual harassment brought against him by a former personal assistant. Fransman is appealing against the sanction‚ meaning he holds on to the provincial chairmanship of the party.

Fransman is also known to be close to Zuma.