A bid to allow South Africa’s government expropriate land without compensation as a way to redress past injustices flopped on Tuesday after lawmakers rejected a bill to change the constitution.

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But even today, whites who make up eight percent of the population “possess 72 percent of farms”, according to figures cited by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Less than 10 percent is in the hands of black people who make up four-fifths of the population.

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The ruling African National Congress’s pointsman on the land reforms, Mathole Motshekga, told fellow lawmakers before the vote that the bill had sought “to address this inhuman crime, crime against the African majority”.

But his argument was shot down by the largest opposition party the Democratic Alliance which contended that the proposal violated property rights and created uncertainty.

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The leftist Economic Freedom Fighters’ leader Julius Malema rejected the bill saying it did not go far enough.

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