Something
is brewing in South Africa, as good as its variety of ingredients, it is
emitting an intoxicating smell. So many sober minded people are turning into
drunkards daily as they continue to inhale this toxicating smell coming out of
the brew. The issue of Land is grabbing
attention from all angles and the narrative points to an unfavourable
direction. Land is sought at every angle but so far the hasn’t been any
pointable action from the powers that be. The election of Cyril Ramaphosa at
the 54th Conference of the ANC heralded a vigorous pursuit to the
land issue and many, particularly black South Africans drank to the well as he
(Ramaphosa) kept scoping out the contends.
Let me say up front, I support the idea of
expropriation of land without compensation, even thou it goes against the
prescripts of the constitution.
However Ramaphosa should know that, those who took away the land wont give it
back without a fight and definitely the will be casualties along the way to
claiming that land. It will be naïve for the Government to talk expropriation of
land without compensation on the same breath as without compromising the
economy, food stability and marginalisation. South Africa must expect the
economy to be shaken, food stability to be challenged and minorities to be
marginalised as government expropriate land without compensation. But lets face
it, those whites when they took our forefather’s land; they also ignored the
economy, food stability and marginalisation. In fact they never cared at all,
all they wanted was to grab as much land away as possible now why should we
care?
When the apartheid regime in the
Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga) sought the fertile land in the then
Mashishing region, now known as Lydenburg, they pushed and shovel the swatis
and Pedis people who had dwelled on that land for many years. The Swati and
Pedi people had established themselves on those sprawling mountains of the
bushveld. The formed small scale farming activities which were flourishing,
their cattles and goats had ample fresh lands to grace, multiple water streams
to drink from and a beautiful nature to enjoy. Those people were living among
each other, as diverse as they were in peace and harmony until a white man
arrived. Their economy was tossed aside, food provision destabilised and deeply
marginalised by pushed and thrown into disarray. Those white men forcefully
removed, uprooted from their land, chased down the bushveld escarpment my
forefathers without any consideration or mercy.
The Marais, De Kocks, De suissas and
their companions occupied that land without any shame. They settled on the land
from the mountain top all the way down to what is known today as Motsepula.
Those white farms in Motsepula are built on land stolen by force and violence
from our grannies and no mercy was shown to them. Burgersfort and Steelpoort
are two towns build on land stolen from my forefathers with impunity. President
Cyril Ramaphosa I hear you when you say, we must expropriate land without
compensation, but it should be done without endangering the economy, food
stability and all, however it is going to be impossible sir. I don’t expect you to understand the
humiliation and shame suffered by my forefathers, but again South Africans
cannot be expected to play nice with the whites when they didn’t in the first
place. They continue to occupy almost all the fertile huge land in our
country while we the rightful owners and heir continue to live in squalor.
Lets move fast, expropriate land
including Motsepula, Burgersfort and Steelpoort without compensation, then we
can come back to worry about the economy, food stability, etc. we cannot
continue to be subjects in our land, live at the mercy of our colonisers and
beg from those who oppressed us. Black people who were chased violently away from their land in
Mashishing, Motsepula, Burgersfort and Steelpoort expect it back. This
government dare not disappoint the many South Africans, including these Swatis
and Pedis, who placed their hopes and faith in its hands.
