TRC – not constitution – to blame for SA land dilemma
The tensions sparked by the prospect of land expropriation without compensation would not exist if the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had tackled the land issue.
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi‚ author of the book
The Land is Ours‚ told a national land colloquium at the University of Cape Town on Friday that even if the constitution were amended‚ there would be insufficient land for restitution.
“One of the problems with the TRC was that it did not include the land‚” said Ngcukaitobi‚ a panelist alongside former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs.
“What it means is that those people who took the land, could not account publicly. And the people who were dispossessed, also had no opportunity to talk of their pain.”
This pain was now emerging at land hearings in SA.
“The problem is not with the constitution‚ but the failure to resolve the unresolved issues despite an enabling environment and legal framework.”
Ngcukaitobi said SA should shift its focus from restitution to what citizens need‚ because even if outstanding land claims were settled, it would amount to a drop in the ocean.
“I want the land, but I don’t want the land in the Eastern Cape where my father is from. I want the land in Johannesburg. We really need to focus on what we need‚ and if it is about citizenship, why don’t I get the land where I work?”
Sachs said the TRC had dealt with perpetrators of crimes‚ and “we thought parliament would examine apartheid”.
Sachs‚ who had his right arm blown off by a car bomb in Mozambique while he was involved in the apartheid struggle, said: “In Mozambique, there are people without legs. They were child soldiers – their country hasn’t recovered from the devastation of civil war. In SA we have avoided that. We don’t have to pick up a gun.”