Hon Chairperson, Ministers and your staff, the guests in the gallery, avusheni. [... greetings.] The South African poet Lefifi Tladi described the state of the youth in words that best describe the attitude of this department to the task of returning land to the black people.
Ga ba tshwenyege, ga ba tshwenyege, ebile ga ba kgathale. [They do not care, are not even concerned; and are not bothered.]
This Ministry does everything to avoid the issue of land redistribution. In 20 years, only 8% of the land, which is worth R50 million, has been bought back. We still remember the times when the President, hon Jacob Zuma, could not pronounce the billions that the government gave to one white farmer, who benefited from the land theft.
The land policy framework of this government promotes illegality. The government takes taxpayers' money and buys back stolen property. Therefore, the EFF can't support a Budget Vote that continues this logic. This government has indeed given up on land redistribution. That is why no targets are set anymore. In 1994, the government set a target of 30% in five years, but it only achieved 1%. Again, it set the same target, that of 30%, by 2014. This year is 2014, and the 30% target that was set has not been reached. The current Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, has no set targets. We just do not know when the land will be returned to our people. The truth is that it will take us more than 100 years to buy back the 30% target prescribed by this government.
"Bogatlapa" [Laziness] has led to a long list of bad land policies. There are some 15 or so policies and Bills to be processed. None is about ending the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle. In other words, they are all about avoiding land expropriation without compensation. The EFF is offering its votes to achieve the two-thirds majority required to amend section 25 of the Constitution: Property; as it stands. Why is the ruling party not taking it so that we complete the land question?
The reopening of the restitution process, the Land Claims Process, is a bad policy. It is clearly about looting by the rural elite and feudal lords connected to the President. We have seen, in the past few weeks, an orgy of claims and counter-claims by all manner of minor chiefs, kings and other such individuals. Even the nephew of the President has claimed more than 60 farms in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Land Claims Process is organised as the second Nkandla. It is not about land returned to our people. The old claims have not been settled. The department has asked for R180 billion for the old claims. Now, there is a new claims process, but the total land budget is about R10 billion, with R2 billion going to the restitution process. Ke mantlwane-ntlwane fela. [This is a joke.]
The Land Claims Process is about the reconstruction of the homeland system and it promotes tribalism. The government neglects the Khoi and the San, and their language is still not recognised amongst our languages. They have been abused to give legitimacy to a bad colonial policy, one that threatens to return us to the Difaqane.
The land question is a national question. It is about remaking a nation - a new way of colonial division, apartheid discrimination and capitalist exploitation. You are taking us backwards instead of marching us forward, hon Minister.
Another bad policy is the strengthening of the relative rights of people working the land. Minister, this is a policy to evict the remaining blacks from their land. You have given the white farmers a year to complete land dispossession that started in 1652.
Please, do not tell us about the lawyers you have hired to stop the evictions. We all know that there are no lawyers that can stop evictions from the farms. They couldn't prevent more than a million evictions since 1994. The so-called 50% of share equity scheme is not about giving land to our people. Your own research has shown that equity schemes don't work. Let's stop the charade! Stop this process! Stop it!
Land is too important to be reduced to a political football by the politicians. Clearly, the ruling party is playing the rhetorical games to sound radical, to avoid doing radical land redistribution, as proposed by the EFF.
In conclusion, our people want their land back, and they want it now! And, we won't buy our land back! Twenty years is enough! Thank you. [Applause.]