Madam Deputy Speaker, the FF Plus leader, Dr Mulder, in his response to the state of the nation debate, had the temerity to suggest that Africans cannot lay claim to 40% of South African land because they migrated from Northern Africa. He contends that Africans cannot lay claim to the land in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape because they are not the original inhabitants of this land.
His sweeping generalisations, based on his land maps of the 19th century, ignore the persistent legacy of colonial dispossession and the history of conquest and collusion. To suggest that when white colonialists arrived here the land was empty is a distortion of our painful history and heaps scorn on the current inequalities we experience as a result of colonial invasion.
Even if we were to ignore his faults and misleading statements, is he suggesting that the majority of people who suffered at the hands of the Voortrekkers, the imperial colonialists and the racist white apartheid regime be relegated to the end of the line and the maximum white ownership and privilege continue unabated?
He bases his venomous views on what can only be termed as his myopic understanding of our history, tainted by selfishness and shaded by racism. The ANC believes that Dr Mulder would do well to make an effort to learn the truth and desist from distorting history. Thank you.