Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister, Thoko Didiza says women should be allowed to play a pivotal role in helping to resolve land ownership challenges in the country.
Didiza says engagements on land issues should be similar to the Codesa negotiations in the 1990s.
The minister was delivering the annual Charlotte Maxeke Public Lecture at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.
Didiza says women can find the solution to the land question, in the same way they waged the struggle against pass laws.
“I know the pain and the cries of African people when it relates to the land. But I don’t hear the cries and concerns of our white’s compatriots. Because until we understand each other’s pain, we will never be able to navigate the future. And for me, we cannot postpone this debate, but we must be mature about it. Because all of us know, whether you talk about agriculture, whether you talk about industrial development; whether you talk about human settlement … all of it is based on the land,” explains Didiza.
