South Africa’s indigenous people who are yearning for land are “running out of patience” and the return of the land to those dispossessed should be accelerated, an African National Congress select committee chairperson said in the policy debate on agriculture and land affairs on Friday.
The MP also suggested that those who have land — an apparent reference to white people — “are unwilling to comply to [with] the sentiments of the Freedom Charter that we shall share this land”. He said his party makes the challenge “to those who have the land to make up their minds otherwise it is too late”, adding that land “must go back to the rightful owners”.
In a fiery speech — reminiscent of Zimbabwe’s Parliament ahead of invasions of white farm land — the MP, Reverend Peter Moatshe, said: “The people who are yearning for land are running out of patience. Unless we are blind … not to read between the lines … the pressure [for speedy land restitution] is coming.”
Moatshe, who is chairperson of the National Council of Provinces select committee on land and environmental affairs, said the people of South Africa are becoming “more politicised over the land question”.
Citing a biblical reference from Leviticus — referring to the “jubilee” return of land to their original owners after 50 years — he said South Africa has already had five jubilee years. “The jubilee year is now long overdue.”
The minister of religion referred to white people as “the white bird which were [sic] crossing the sea to South Africa and to the continent of Africa. That was the beginning of the threat to land. It is where it started.”
“When you read Leviticus … it talks of the jubilee year. The land shall go back to the rightful owners. The Bible came with the white bird from overseas.”
Describing the land-restitution budget as being “a drop in the ocean”, the MP said it has been “an endeavour” to address the legacy of dispossession since 1652, an apparent reference to the arrival of the first white man to settle, Dutch governor Jan van Riebeeck.
He said: “It is very much important that those who have the land and those who do not have the land must come to a point of agreement that the land shall be shared by those who occupy it. These imbalances cannot be allowed to continue for ever.”
Expressing doubt that 30% of the land can be placed in the hands of indigenous people by 2015, Moatshe said the land-reform programme has to be “considerably accelerated”.
However, he pointed to the success of the land-restitution programme with 86,2% of the 79 000 claims having been settled. He noted that there are just 10 977 outstanding claims — 8 055 in rural areas and 2 922 in urban areas. The latter are scheduled to be settled in 2008 and 2007 respectively, he reported. — I-Net Bridge