Contralesa General Secretary, Zolani Mkiva has described the slow rate of land restoration as a death trap and a time-ticking bomb which if not tackled fast enough may result in “anarchy and chaos.”
He says they as traditional leaders do not want the matter to reach those levels because they have decided to take a progressive approach to the matter.
As traditional leaders, they are urging for the restoration of land to the black majority.
“We went into the struggle of the attainment of our freedom and at the center of that was the restoration of land to the African majority.”
He says this is a position they are not willing to move from. Mkiva says government must use the policies agreed on and follow the correct legal route to restore the land to its original owners.
He says they would have preferred a different approach because “the peace meal fashion is very tedious and laborious and it will take a lot of time for us to realise this.”
Meanwhile, outside Nasrec, three members of the First Nations say they are calling for restoration of land of the Khoi and San people.
Chief Joe Marble of the Khoisan Mass Movement says, “We need our land back, South Africa belongs to the Khoisan. We are here today because we are being ignored. We need land like the Zulus so we can teach our children how to speak our language and how to sustain ourselves.”
Marble says without their land, his people are nothing.
Mkiva says they are working together with people of Khoisan descent in this regard.
“Their protest is reasonable and it makes sense but people must not confuse concepts, the Khoisan are Africans like Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Tshivenda, we are one people fighting for the same course.”
Mkiva says, “We are all related, izizwe ziyazalana, we are related biologically, economically, politically and otherwise. We are one people with one DNA which is that of being African.”
In his political report at the 55th National Conference of the ANC, party President Cyril Ramaphosa said they are working together with traditional leaders to fast track the mandate of the 54th conference of the ANC to return land to its original owners.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa’s political report:
