People can’t have true freedom without land
The problem of landlessness still unfolds in the new democratic SA. The dispossession of the African people of this country of their land was utterly wrong. This dispossession did not begin in 1913; it began from the first day of colonial aggressive conquest by the gun, which left thousands of Africans dead. By 1913 only crumbs of land were left for Africans .
Unless the matter gets resolved realistically, we can only regard this situation as a time bomb.
I am not a supporter of the willing buyer, willing seller policy of the ANC. It is flawed. It is totally unbecoming to expect Africans to wait for the generosity of the socalled willing seller to correct this wrong. White landowners are not willing to sell at a reasonable and affordable price. Moreover, to be forced to buy the land that belonged to your great-grandfathers which is rightfully yours is unjust.
As a result of this sluggish land reform process, people wait many years before they can start planning to sustain themselves through their land. Many have even become refugees in their own country.
Basically, section 25 (7 ) of the constitution must be amended as it consolidates the dispossession of the African people of their land. This robbery was legalised through the Native Land Act of 1913.
The question of land restitution is not optional, but should have been the very base of a post-apartheid settlement. The Restitution of Land Rights Act with its cut off date of December 31 1998 has left many claimants to land in the cold.
We cannot be helpless while our land is being sold to foreigners like ice cream on a hot summer day while we stay in shacks and vezunyawo (small) houses.
It is high time the government called a land summit to discuss the land problem. I urge the government to move swiftly on the question of land restitution because nobody wants to see what happened in Zimbabwe happen here.
Without land the lives of workers cannot be changed for the better. Without land we cannot have true freedom and independence. Without land we cannot be free from unemployment. Without land we cannot be free from poverty.
The PAC has never changed its position on redistribution of the land and wealth of this country. SA is rich, but its people, particularly the African people, are poor. The wealth is in the hands of the few. That is the root of corruption. There are few Africans who have benefited from the resources of SA.
It is a classic case similar to the story of a wolf and a dog. Once upon a time, a hungry wolf left the forest and approached the village.
On the way it met a sleek, fat dog. “Brother , how come you are so sleek and happy when I am lean and discontented?” asked the wolf. The dog replied: “I live with a family. My master feeds me well and I do not work at all. I play with my master’s children all day long. They love me every much.
“Why don’t you join me and be sleek and happy too?”
“Will your master and his family love me too?” asked the wolf, desperate for food.
“Oh, yes” replied the dog . “Let us go,” the dog said. On the way, the wolf noticed a scar on the dog’s neck . “Hey what is that scar on your neck?” he asked.
“Oh,” laughed the dog “that is nothing. You see, at night I am chained. But that does not worry me,” the dog added hastily, “because I am well fed and cared for.”
“You are chained at night?!” asked the wolf alarmed. “Then thank you for your food. I am accustomed to freedom in the forest where I roam. I cannot exchange my freedom for chains and a full belly.” The hungry wolf went back to the forest.
This story symbolises that no Freedom Charter can liberate the African masses in Azania.