Yes, I've heard it. This means I can speak Xitsonga a little bit. The President has established an interministerial committee that is handling land reform. I am chairing that committee. We have made some progress. What we have done is that we have looked at all the land that is in the hands of the state - national government, public entities, provincial governments and municipalities. But for now we have started with land that is owned by the national government, its entities and
departments. And we are saying that this land must be redistributed to the people and must be utilised.
For the first phase we have identified 278 portions of land that are in the hands of the state and must ultimately be redistributed back to the people. What we are doing is that we are measuring the extent of these properties and we are looking at the land use of these properties. We don't want to redistribute land that is barren and cannot be used. We want to redistribute land that is going to be utilised. We are going to tell you that in this land you can do one, two and three because as government we have done our own homework. That is in process. The President is going to make an announcement about the criteria that we are going to use to redistribute that land.
Secondly, all those people that have put claims on land that is owned by government, we have taken a decision that we are going to give them free of charge. We are processing those pieces of land and they are almost 260. We have already given back 40 of them. An announcement is going to be made and a ceremony will be made where we are going to hand them over. They have claimed it and we have already given them 40 free of charge. What is remaining is the 220
land parcels that we are still investigating. We are doing all our processes and we will give them back to the people.
Beyond giving these people less land we are also looking at the farmer support. How do we assist them? That is why we speak about the support service centres at the district level. That's where we are going to support them.
Of course there is land that has been claimed but is in private hands. We are waiting for the process of section 25 of the Constitution from these Houses so that we can proceed with expropriation without compensation. [Applause.] In that effect we are going to do this within the confines of the law and we are going to work with commercial farmers. We accept donations of land. There are some farmers who are donating land to their labour tenants. We welcome that. That's the right step. There are those who are not utilising this land. They must not wait until we have appropriated this land. They can donate it. That will foster the spirit of a nation. That will foster a united society. There can't be any qualms and quibbling about land. People were disposed and why can't we as a country agree that we must mend the wrong that was done. We must do right to this wrong that was done. It's a right thing to do and it will keep us together. I want to say to our farmers, our commercial
farmers and white farmers that there is no need to panic. We are going to keep you here as we need your skills, but let's remember that some people were dispossessed. Let's make right where wrong was made. Thank you very much.