George Bizos: Government is to blame for the land issue
Nelson Mandela's friend and lawyer, Adv George Bizos says the constitution cannot be blamed for Government's failure to redistribute land.
Bizos delivered the Nadine Gordimer lecture at Wits on Thursday night, saying political leadership is the sole reason why the state has failed to settle the land issue and that he is angered by those who chose to attack the constitution and the judiciary.
"It is no fault of the constitution. It has various sections and subsections of which the government hasn't tried to put any into force," he said.
He added there is a small group of black people who totally disregard the constitution and say that they are going to take land.
"We have the constitution insulted because government didn't take the steps it ought to have taken," said Bizos.
Bizos also accused government for failing to redistribute land, telling guests the constitution must not be blamed for that failure.
"The land is not being used. No steps have been taken for land to be given to people to build houses or grow crops - we have failed in that. But don't blame the constitution. Blame the fact that you haven't been conducting yourself the way you should have".