House Chair, despite defining and false euphoria about nonracial unity and various attempts to paint a picture of South Africa as a nation. The reality of the matter is that we are yet to be a nation. We are as divided as ever before of the pervasive colonial and apartheid denialism in this country.
At the centre of it all, is the failure of this government to resolve the colonial and apartheid question on land dispossession. Twenty-five years after attaining political freedom, whites still own over 70% of the land and Africans just less than 4%.
The various land reform interventions made since 1994 have drastically failed. Rather, beneficiaries of colonial and apartheid theft have benefitted the most from the post-1994 land reform experiment. The illegitimate owners of MalaMala Game Reserve were gifted R1 billion and are still benefiting from the partnership arrangement there.
Billions of rand have been spent on buying stolen land from white settlers since 1994 and we have not seen the same amount of money invested in ensuring that the black beneficiaries of land are supported,
In addition, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been paying lip service to the development of black farmers for a while. There is no coherent plan to support new entrants to the sector and those already in it are struggling because the government's support comes in an unco- ordinated manner.
There is over R150 million that was meant for transforming the agricultural sector that is sitting with the Land Bank since 2009 meant for the AgriBEE agreement.
None of this money has been used for the development of black farmers. As the EFF, we reject this Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report, BRRR.