Land reform is the only true recourse

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa laid bare the atrocities black people suffered due to the enactment of the 1913 Natives Land Act during the Presidential Land Restitution ceremony in Pretoria recently.

The ceremony was to restore land to the Mahlangu and Malobola, whose land was dispossessed by the act.

The president quoted Sol Plaatjie, who told of an African family evicted from their land who had to bury a child under cover because they had no right or title to the lands from which they were evicted.

“Even criminals dropping straight from the gallows have an undisputed claim to six feet of ground on which to rest their criminal remains, but under the cruel operation of the Natives’ Land Act, little children, whose only crime is that God did not make them white, are sometimes denied that right in their ancestral home.” This quote sent chills down my spine as I pondered how life must have been then.

I echo the sentiment by Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane that the oppressive regime that made black South Africans landless produced inequality, sowed division and fertilised poverty.

As a result, I concur with those who say land reform is the only recourse that will bring redress to our disenfranchised souls. During the ceremony in Mamelodi, a total of R203 million was given to nine families who opted for financial compensation due to developments on the land previously occupied by their ancestors. I rejoiced at the positive ramifications this will have.

The land reform process through restitution, acquisition and tenure security will automatically correct matters of asset inequality, poverty and food insecurity. THEMBA MZULA HLEKO | Pretoria