Hon Chairperson, from the onset I wish to put it very clear that the IFP supports land reform and redistribution. This is the call that we have championed for so many years. The resolution of land issue carries with it the promise of healing the wounds of the past. Land has social, spiritual and economic values. It has the potential to be the foundation of the renewed economy our country critically need.
Hon Chairperson, section 25 of our Constitution allows for expropriation of land with reasonable compensation where it is deemed fits in the public interests. The IFP remains of the considered opinion that section 25, as it is currently framed in our Constitution, is broad enough to allow for expropriation with no compensation. We need justification to why it is necessary to re-establish the ad hoc committee on this matter. The Constitution had not failed our people. It is
the current policies of this government that is failing our people in redistributing land. Therefore, amending the Constriction is never going to solve the problem of land in our country.
The land that government has already expropriated and redistributed has been severely neglected. The postsettlement programmes to assist communities in working the land have dismally failed. There are many farms that have been given to communities and those communities were never supported and as a result these farms are no longer producing.
Hon Chairperson, we cannot put a plaster on an open wound without diagnosing the cause and the symptoms of our pain and failures. If we look at the current budget of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, it is clearly showing that government does not care or it is not serious in addressing the issue of land. If it was serious the amount allocated to this department could have been substantially more than all the previous years. We cannot continue to pay lip service in a painful issues of land reforms. And we cannot use such a sensitive matter to play politics. Our people have
suffered and that is enough. The IFP does not support the re- establishment of this committee. Thank you.