Chairperson, Cope seriously favours reviewing the current land tenure system during this Medium-Term Strategic Framework period. This must be done through rigorous engagement with all South Africans, so that the tenure system will satisfy the aspirations of all South Africans irrespective of race, gender or class.
The need to prioritise land reform and rural development is obvious. Land is a fundamental national asset. Used well and fairly, land can be a launching pad for the equitable wealth of a nation. It was never by mistake that the primary aim of the conquest of the past was to acquire land. It therefore should surprise no one that land will play a central role in the reversal of such injustices.
Land is not only an asset for food security, but also a deeply emotive issue, as it is part of the self-definition of a people. It is this tightrope that our processes of rural development and land reform must seek to walk.
Cope supports the department in wanting to achieve its objectives, such as aggressively implementing land reform policies, stimulating agricultural production with a view to contributing to food security, promoting rural development, and so on.
It is a fact that our rural poverty is a result of policies that, over centuries, deliberately sought to impoverish our people in order to use them as a source of cheap labour. This fundamental injustice of the past has to be reversed and rural life must be transformed without delay. A proper and meaningful distribution of land must be undertaken at once. The major disgruntlement of the people must be properly and expeditiously addressed.
Lastly, in each area, through the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, the CRDP, rural communities themselves must become central to their own development. This must be our aim. Cope trusts that the Minister will try to achieve the objectives of this department with single- mindedness and deep passion. Cope will support this Budget Vote. [Time expired.]