News / Africa
Africans cannot lay claim to land in SA's Cape - FF+
16 Feb 2012 at 03:54hrs | Views
AFRICANS cannot lay claim to land in the Western Cape and Northern Cape because they are not original inhabitants of this land.
This was the view of Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder when he responded to President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address yesterday.
Mulder, who is deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said Africans did not have a legal and historic claim to up to 40% of South Africa's land because they migrated from northern parts of Africa. He said this was based on a soon-to-be released book by two experts who tracked the land issue from as far back as the 1600s.
"Africans never in the past lived in the whole of South Africa. The Bantu-speaking people moved from the Equator down while the white people moved from the Cape up to meet each other at the Kei River.
"There is sufficient proof that there were no Bantu- speaking people in the Western Cape and North-Western Cape. These parts form 40% of South Africa's land surface," he said to loud jeering from ANC benches.
According to Mulder, the debate on land distribution based on figures indicating that whites still own 87% of the land and that only 8% has been redistributed to landless blacks, is based on wrong figures.
Mulder also asked whether the ANC was willing to include state land, land owned by the Zulu monarch and private farms belonging to high profile ANC members Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale on its target of the 30% of land that has to be distributed to landless blacks.
Mulder said a number of white farmers had written to inform him that they had offered their land to the department of rural development and land reform but hadn't received any response.
Mulder, who was appointed deputy minister by Zuma in 2009, has often clashed with Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson over his reluctance to articulate government policy when he is on public platforms.
Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin slammed Mulder's argument as outrageous.
This was the view of Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder when he responded to President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address yesterday.
Mulder, who is deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said Africans did not have a legal and historic claim to up to 40% of South Africa's land because they migrated from northern parts of Africa. He said this was based on a soon-to-be released book by two experts who tracked the land issue from as far back as the 1600s.
"Africans never in the past lived in the whole of South Africa. The Bantu-speaking people moved from the Equator down while the white people moved from the Cape up to meet each other at the Kei River.
"There is sufficient proof that there were no Bantu- speaking people in the Western Cape and North-Western Cape. These parts form 40% of South Africa's land surface," he said to loud jeering from ANC benches.
Mulder also asked whether the ANC was willing to include state land, land owned by the Zulu monarch and private farms belonging to high profile ANC members Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale on its target of the 30% of land that has to be distributed to landless blacks.
Mulder said a number of white farmers had written to inform him that they had offered their land to the department of rural development and land reform but hadn't received any response.
Mulder, who was appointed deputy minister by Zuma in 2009, has often clashed with Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson over his reluctance to articulate government policy when he is on public platforms.
Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin slammed Mulder's argument as outrageous.
Source - sowetanlive
