Hon Speaker, honourable President and Deputy President, hon members and guests, indeed the year 2013 marks 100 years of the notorious Natives Land Act of 1913. But 2013 also marks 19 years since the first democratic elections in our land. For many of us, the primary reason for the liberation struggle was land dispossession. We know that there might have been those who were more interested in fighting for the sharing of toilets and other amenities between blacks and whites. It therefore follows that, for Azapo, the matter of land restitution was supposed to have been item number one on the agenda of a free South Africa. We said then, that it was wrong to entrench land dispossession with clauses such as the willing- buyer, willing-seller principle. We said then that it would not work. We were therefore heartened by your admission, Mr President, that the "willing- buyer, willing seller" principle does not work. There is a need to fast- track land restitution, Mr President.
We have also taken note of your concerns about food security and we agree. However, we want to disabuse the nation of the notion that black ownership of land and farms represents a threat to food security. The problem is lack of post-settlement support to communities that had land restored to them. We have also noted with concern how certain individuals and groups have hijacked land restored to communities, with some selling sites to unsuspecting community members. Communities claim that they have reported such acts to the authorities, and nothing is being done. The community of Masakaneng outside Groblersdal is a classical example of that.
On education, Mr President, Azapo welcomes the announcement that by the end of the financial year, 98 schools shall have been build. We also welcome the fact that 40 of those schools are in the Eastern Cape, replacing the infamous mud schools. It is actually a disgrace Mr President, that 19 years after the democratic elections, we are still talking about mud schools. It is even more worrying that government and the Department of Basic Education first had to be dragged to court in order to do what should have been an obvious thing to do.
While we welcome the fact that Kha Ri Gude has reached 2,2 million people between 2008 and 2011, Azapo would like to know: What was the impact of such an encounter on the lives of those people? Are we able to quantify the success of Kha Ri Gude, except to refer to the numbers?
Azapo has noted with disappointment that you are now backtracking on the need to designate education as an essential service. There is a legal definition of what essential service means, and this definition is found in the Labour Relations Act, as amended. The implications of the designation are far-reaching; among others that workers in such a sector cannot go on strike. We are disappointed that after murmurs from some union, you backtracked and tried to find a new definition for essential service.
Azapo believes that many ordinary people would support the designation of education as an essential service, and this includes teachers. The concern that unions have stems from their observation of how government has treated the health sector as well as the safety and security sectors. After designating them as essential services, government failed to go the full distance by refusing or failing to conclude a minimum service level agreement, SLA, in those sectors. Designating education as an essential service will mean that systems will be put in place to fast-track collective bargaining and dispute resolution in the sectors. It will mean that everything possible will be done to remove the need for teachers to go on strike.
You have also referred to the work that will be created through the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, and the Community Work Programme, CWP. Our Offices are inundated with complaints from citizens that every time that opportunities arise in those programmes, they are told that they must produce a membership card of a political party. We also hear that in some cases people have to belong to a certain faction of a political party before they can be employed. The people of Radikgale can inform you better about this issue.
Azapo supports, as you said Mr President, the Palestinian people's right to national self-determination. Like all of us, Palestinians have a right to statehood. We heard you speak against Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories. How I wish we could hear more even outside this House. South Africa must not forget the Saharan people in their struggle for self-determination.
Finally, hon Speaker, I would like to end my speech by saying happy birthday to my son, Regaugetswe Kwame Dikobo.
Khula Tlou, Letebele, Mogwasha! [Praise!]
I thank you. [Applause.]