Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has told EFF MPs that they do not have a monopoly on the land redistribution question, and that the ANC will solve the problem.
Ramaphosa told the National Assembly on Thursday that there was more than one way to tackle the land issue in the country.
“We can’t just announce slogans. We have to find practical ways,” he said.
“Amending the Constitution is one of the strategies. Implementing what we’ve already got in the Constitution is also a strategy.
“You must never sit there and say you have the monopoly on what is correct. You don’t feel the pain of land deprivation more than anyone else sitting on this [ANC] side,” he said to applause from ANC MPs.
“This commitment that is on this side of the House is so deep and so thorough that we are going to solve this problem.”
He was answering a question from EFF MP Mzingisi Dlamini, who asked if the ANC’s and President Jacob Zuma’s position on land, and amending the Constitution, differed.
Ramaphosa also said that many black MPs from the ANC side had experienced personal pain related to the land issue.
“The issue of land is very important, and should be seen as such to all South Africans.
“There was a great injustice done to the black majority. If you were to ask every member of Parliament that is black, they would be able to tell you their own personal stories of land removal.
“I experienced it twice in my family.”
He said what Parliament was called to do was approach the matter in light of the Constitution.
Zuma ‘not being divisive’
He said Zuma’s remarks last week at the opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders came from a place of “deep-seated pain” that was felt by all black people in the country.
“As we feel this pain, we must find solutions to how we can deal with this historical injustice.”
New Democratic Alliance MP Hlomela Bucwa asked Ramaphosa if Zuma’s comments were divisive.
“What the president was saying was that this problem needs to be resolved,” Ramaphosa answered.
“He was not seeking to divide. If the line on this issue is either being progressive or conservative, then it will divide you.
“On this [ANC] side sits the progressive. I think you must admit that what the DA stands for is conservatism.”
ANC MPs shouted “Yes!”
“That is real politics, if you ever want to know what real politics is about,” he said with a smile before sitting down. – News24