Title deeds a burning hot issue

Access to livelihood, family heritage and human dignity.

This is why scores of Eastern Cape families pleaded at the weekend for government to change the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation.

Hundreds of people from nearby towns packed the Jansenville town hall on Saturday during the Eastern Cape leg of the constitutional review committee hearings on amending section 25 of the constitution.

While many, mostly black people, said the constitution had to be amended, others said doing so would send SA into an economic crisis.

Many farmers said they supported land reform but that government had been too slow and inefficient in the distribution of land.

Neliswa Yantolo, from Somerset East, said she was born on a farm in Klipfontein but shortly after her birth, her parents were chased away from there.

“Recently, we wanted to hold a traditional ceremony to appease our ancestors, but before we could do it we had to request to the white farm owner access to go to the graves of our forefathers, which we had to wait some time for the landlord to approve.

“This was an insult to human dignity. The constitution is meant to redress imbalances of the past and how do you begin to do that without addressing land issue,” she said.

Born and raised on a farm between Uitenhage and Kirkwood, Zwelothando Mooi, from Blaauwkrantz, said he faced eviction from the only home he had known, a place where his parents and grandparents were buried.

Mooi, who supported the amending the constitution, said they had hope when government bought 1,400 hectares of land for 21 beneficiaries including himself but said they never received title deeds.

“The owner of that land is trying to remove us from that land. He is proposing giving us only 300 hectares. This matter is with lawyers now,” he said.

Lulu Jikolo, from Alexandria, said she supported amending the constitution.

Jikolo said her forefathers were forcefully removed from their land and had their cattle sold in Alexandria.

“Our forefathers had title deeds to their farms but they were still removed.

“Our people’s graves are on these people’s farms and having these talks makes us happy because it looks as if something is being done about black people’s struggles,” she said.

However Eugene Brink, from AfriForum, said amending the constitution would be an enormous mistake as the state had failed to redistribute land in the last 24 years.

“The state owns roughly a quarter of agricultural land in the country and they should first start selling and handing over that land before they start talking about the rest.”

Former minister of rural development and land reform Gu-

The constitution is meant to redress imbalances of the past

gile Nkwinti has admitted that 90% of land reform farms failed due to lack of or poor government support, Brink said.

Egmont Bouwer, of GraaffReinet, supported amending the constitution saying every generation of his family since they landed in Cape Town in 1733 was involved in the theft of land or the defence of it.

He said they were among those who committed genocide against the Khoi and San.

“I want to mention that white farmers did not become successful until they were actively assisted by the state,” he said.

With a land bank that could offer soft loans and a department of agriculture that could provide professional assistance to black farmers, they could succeed too, he said.

Dairy farmer Judy Woodgate, from Tsitsikamma, said it was “illogical to hold people accountable for things that happened before they were born and know nothing about”.