Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MECs and hon members, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, we meet here only days before the 56th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the People on 26 June 1955. I here mean the real Congress of the People! [Interjections.]
I therefore suggest that we take this opportunity to look at what the Freedom Charter had to say about land issues. The relevant section is entitled: "The land shall be shared among those who work it!" It includes the following demands:
Restriction of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land redivided amongst those who work it, to banish famine and land hunger; So, production, discipline and food security, mentioned by the Minister as guiding principles, are enshrined in the Freedom Charter. The second point is:
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers.
Is this not what the department's development programmes seek to address? The third point is:
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land; All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
Taking these two clauses, they are clearly directed against the geographic segregation of the time. I am trying to reassure AgriSA that this last clause is not an invitation to wholesale squatting. But maybe the point needs to be made that unless we address the issue of land reform and redistribution with greater urgency, we face the real possibility of land invasions. I am saying that without fear or favour. I am sure I can rely on the support of the DA now that they have all of a sudden embraced the Freedom Charter. [Interjections.] Briefly, the final point:
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished. Why? We may have outlawed forced labour and farm prisons, but we still hear of cases where vulnerable farm dwellers have their cattle impounded, and of cruel actions being meted out to defenceless people on the farms. Some are still treated as outcasts and slaves in their own country. Farm evictions continue, often illegally. This is exactly why the department has drafted the Land Tenure Security Bill, to close the loopholes.
Obstacles put up to prevent free political and trade union activity on the farms deny farmworkers and dwellers their basic human rights. The FF Plus and the DA are the first to complain when their rights are infringed, but when some amongst their constituency deny basic rights to vulnerable farm dwellers, including by killing them, the silence is from you deafening. [Applause.]
I also feel that there is a responsibility for organised agriculture to educate and police their membership in this respect. For the benefit of those who have developed political amnesia since 1994, let us pause to remember where we come from. [Interjections.] I know that it is painful to the DA when we talk about the past.
Within walking distance of these Houses of Parliament lies District Six, a symbol of apartheid's inhumanity and the destruction visited upon vibrant communities in the name of racial supremacy. When District Six was declared a white group area in 1966, the heart was ripped out of the city. [Interjections.]