‘No land, no vote’

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has called on landless and poor people to boycott the elections on Wednesday.

LPM spokesperson Mangaliso Kubheka said in a statement on Tuesday the boycott will ”deliver a resounding warning to political leaders over the country’s land crisis”.

”As the country celebrates 10 years of democracy, we as the poor and landless majority have little to celebrate since we still do not have the land that was promised to us in the 1955 Freedom Charter and the 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme,” said Kubheka.

He said the LPM will not celebrate 10 years of democracy while the voice of the poor has not been heard. Evictions from farms continue, and less than 3% of land has been redistributed.

Kubheka said: ”We have pleaded with the ruling party and with other political parties to take seriously our demand for land reform as a fundamental requirement of post-apartheid transformation.”

He said the LPM demands a national summit to discuss ”real issues” that cause land reform to fail.

”We are sick and tired of being used as pawns by political elites who only ‘care’ about us at election time, then expect us to suffer our poverty and dispossession in silence for the next five years,” he added.

Kubheka also urged people ”strictly” to respect other voters and not demonstrate within 200m of polling stations. The protests should also be peaceful and without violence.

He said: ”The LPM’s election boycott call is an expression of our democratic right, and not in any way an interference with the democratic rights of others.” — Sapa