PAC spurns 1h land offer

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has condemned the proposed government policy of giving one household one hectare of land and two dairy cows.

PAC stalwart and the party’s former national executive committee member Bishop Toboti yesterday lashed out at the department of rural development and Minister Gugile Nkwinti for her proposal.

The department presented the policy idea to the portfolio committee on rural development in parliament yesterday.

Toboti said the land issue could not be decided only by the minister, but it should be decided by the people.

“This is not a decision that can be taken by the government alone, but the minister must sit down with the people. It is Africans that must settle this matter in their own terms, not the government,” he said.

“We don’t want a piece of land, we have got to get back the land to the original owners. Whites took our land and it must be returned to us Africans,” Toboti said.

He said Nkwinti had to sit down and discuss with the people the modalities of how to return the land to its rightful owners.

However, the rural development portfolio committee welcomed the department’s proposed policy. “The Committee welcomes this initiative to ensure poverty alleviation, food security, tenure security and access to markets,” the committee said yesterday.