Share land, white farmers told
19/05/2006 11:53 - (SA)


Cape Town - White landowners in South Africa were challenged on Friday to start talks about sharing their land before it was too late.

"The people who are yearning for land are running out... of patience," senior ANC member Peter Moatshe stressed in the National Council of Provinces on Friday.

Moatshe, who chairs parliament's land and environmental affairs select committee, questioned the pace at which government was moving on land reform.

"This government is negotiating with those who have land. But those who have land are unwilling... to comply with the... sentiments of the Freedom Charter, that we shall share this land.

"The Freedom Charter does not say those who came must go. What... it says is white and black in this country must share the land. The land belongs to the people of this country.

"Therefore we make this challenge to those who have the land, that they shall make up their minds, otherwise it will be too late," he warned.

Legacy from 1652

Speaking during the agriculture and land affairs budget vote debate, he said the threat to land ownership had arrived in Africa with white colonialists.

"The white birds which were crossing the sea to South Africa and the continent of Africa - that was the beginning of the threat towards land.

"It's where it starts. These are facts that cannot be disputed by anybody. The question of land becomes imperative, and that's why we are debating this budget vote today.

"It is an endeavour to address this legacy from 1652. It is therefore very important that those who have the land, and those who do not have the land, must come to a point of agreement. That the land shall be shared by those who occupy it.

"These imbalances cannot be allowed to continue for ever and ever and ever," he said.

The budget being voted on was a "drop in the ocean" towards addressing the land question.

Satisfying the masses

Speaking in the House immediately after Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza, he said there were still great imbalances when it came to land, 12 years after the advent of democracy.

"Are we really moving at a speed that will satisfy the masses of this country? Are we not going to be caught up between those who have the land, and those who thirst for land? We have to speed up this process."

Moatshe cited the Bible in his plea for faster land reform.

"The people of this country are becoming much more politicised on the land question, and therefore the land must come back to the rightful owners in the spirit of Leviticus, Chapter 25."

This, he said, stated "the land must go back to the rightful owners".

If government sought to achieve a 30% distribution of land by 2015 to previously disadvantaged people, the pace of land reform would have to be considerably accelerated, he said.