Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, I have just learned recently from the Minister that there are 3 000 claims that have been settled up to now, apparently, out of 11 000 which we discovered in the records of the land claims commissioner last year. I am referring to the Northern Province and Mpumalanga. I wish to commend the department for this improvement, because we were labouring under the impression that only four applications had been settled.
I would like also to share my sentiments on this issue of the ill-treatment of farmworkers that have been staying on the farms for quite a long time. In the Northern Province we have observed a situation in the area called Messina, and the farming community is called Maswiriboerdery. There it was a funny situation because about 200 farm residents were ill-treated and threatened with eviction. But, at the end of the day, it appeared that the magistrate and the prosecutors sort of aligned themselves with the intention to evict these people completely. This aroused very great suspicion, because, really, the magistrate and prosecutors are public functionaries who, we believe, are also law enforcers. We noted that with dismay.
In November 1999 I happened to be in the team of those who went out to observe land claims restitution and the progress taking place. I must inform this House that the response we got from the people we met there was not quite pleasing. They seemed to be very despondent and complained that the process was taking too long. I think it would be fair for us, especially for me, to report to this House that the people who have lodged claims with the department are quite unhappy. The Minister should please take note of that.
Another observation I have made concerns the issue of willing seller and willing buyer. The process has good intentions especially because it assures a bottom-up approach to land redistribution. We realised that emerging farmers were being exploited, because most of the farmers who sold their farms to emerging farmers charged exorbitant prices. The poor emerging farmers, who have never been in the field of farming, are easily exploited. Usually the Land Bank assists emerging farmers. But, as we know, the Land Bank's main intention or incentive is to maximise its profit.
We are calling upon the department to intervene and look into the possibility of assisting emerging farmers who intend to buy farms from white people.
Members should note that there is an omission in the sense that a feasibility study of such farms has never been undertaken to find out if emerging farmers are able to produce enough products and are able to market them and run their farms as businesses and maintain them. [Time expired.]