President Cyril Ramaphosa. (File photo)
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday returned to the land issue amid Washington’s ongoing attack on domestic property laws and said South Africa will never again see the abomination of forced removals.
Replying to the debate on his State of the Nation address, he said the pain and poverty wrought by the Natives Land Act of 1913 on millions of South Africans was still evident in communities across the country more than a century later.
“Over the course of two decades, the apartheid regime forcibly removed more than 3.5 million people in District Six, Sophiatown, Marabastad, Cato Manor, Kroonstad, Nelspruit and many other places across the country,” Ramaphosa told the National Assembly.
“It was one of the largest mass removals of people in modern history.”
Some of the MPs in the house remember the agony of their families being forced from District Six, a stone’s throw from parliament, he added.
“There are millions more across the country who still experience the effects of this monstrous crime. The people of this country know the pain of forced removals. That is why we will never allow forced removals again.”
The president defended laws enabling historic redress and sought to calm fears over the Expropriation Act he signed at the end of January, and 10 days later served as a pretext for US President Donald Trump to sever all funding to South Africa.
He said the Constitution prohibited the arbitrary deprivation of property to prevent a return to the original sin of apartheid.
“That is why we have a Constitution that requires just and equitable compensation be paid in the event of expropriation for a public purpose or in the public interest,” Ramaphosa said.
“Our experience of forced removals also explains the constitutional requirement that the state must take reasonable measures, within its available resources, to foster conditions which enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis.”
Addressing the debate regarding the Act and Washington’s sanction, he added: “We must not allow others to define us or to divide us.”
Ramaphosa called for national unity and said it was not the moment to cry foul abroad, but for all population groups to help build the country and for diverse voices to convey a common message to the rest of the world.
“At a time like this, we need to stand united as a nation, particularly now when we are facing harsh global wind,” he said.
“This is not the time for any of us to rush off to foreign lands to lay complaints about issues that we can solve ourselves in our country.”
It was an implicit rebuke of AfriForum, the Afrikaner rights movement that has, for years, lobbied US lawmakers and media about what it insists is the victimisation of the white minority in post-apartheid South Africa.
“We need South African solutions to South African problems,” Ramaphosa said.
“While there are many diverse and different voices in our society, we must strive to convey a common message.”
The US embassy has issued a directive saying it would prioritise support for South African minorities seeking political refuge, after Trump reiterated his claims that certain population groups here found themselves in danger.