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Land activist and lawyer Tembeka Nguckaitobi says the country’s leaders, including the ANC, know what needs to be done to speed up land reform — but they just don’t have political will.
Addressing the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation’s summit in the Drakensberg on Saturday, Ngcukaitobi said it was difficult to speed up land reform.
“I think there is a problem of political willingness. Comrades seemingly don’t want to focus on land. The future is the redistribution of land at whose heart is the state [that must redistribute land to] people who need the land, not the comrades.
“Comrades don’t need the land, they can buy it in the open market. Second requirement is ability, it’s people who can show that they can farm. There are many people wearing safaris in the villages who can farm and they do this every day. But they are the last in the queue because the land is going to the comrades and to the white people who have now turned themselves into consultants in the land ecosystem. They have black people fronting for them.
“All of these things have been written down, they are out there. Everyone knows about them. What we need to change is political direction.”
Nguckaitobi explained that those in government know what to do because even Jan van Riebeek wrote this down in his journal.
“He [Van Riebeek] said for us to create a thriving industrial agricultural economy, we need people to work for us and so they got the Khoi Khoi to work for them and enslaved them. We need access to the market — they got the Dutch East Indian Company to buy all of the produce. We need a tax break — they were not taxed for three years. And then the final input, land. They got the land for free. How do you think they did it? These people are not geniuses — they got these four things for free. That is how the white agricultural industry was created in the Cape.
“Now when it comes to Africans … no no no, we have a problem, what are you going to do with the land? — you do not have the skills, you don’t have the ability. This is nonsense. The government knows all of this. It doesn’t need me to tell them.”
Earlier, Ngcukaitobi expressed his frustration at talking about the topic without any progress.
He said it was surprising “because the ANC was elected specifically to address the problem of dispossession of land by white people through colonialism and through the 1913 Native Land Act. That was the sole mandate why the ANC fought for liberation. And the sole mandate why they were voted in in 1994. After 30 years, they do nothing about it and call us to another meeting. So that is why I felt a sense of frustration and in a sense impatience and despondency.”
Earlier, the foundation’s patron, former president Kgalema Motlanthe, said the country must invest in the youth because the future belonged to them. He noted changes in megatrends such as demographic changes, urbanisation, shifts in geopolitical structures have far-reaching implications for Africa.
“The African continent stands at the intersection of these trends with unique opportunities and challenges that demand urgent and thoughtful responses,” said Motlanthe.
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