LISTEN: ‘Whites, blacks entitled to SA land’
Political analyst Prince Mashele says the notion that only black people are entitled to the land in South Africa is false.
He was speaking during a debate on land expropriation without compensation at trade union federation Fedusa’s leadership conference in Boksburg on Thursday.
Mashele argued that the question of land is emotional because of the country’s painful history.
“It is emotional to blacks because of specific laws that were passed in order to ensure that black people get the smallest pile of South African’s land. So, 1913 did happen it’s not a joke or some pollical hoax and it was a painful process for black people.”
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He said Afrikaners are emotional about land because it reminds them of the suffering they endured during the Anglo Boer war.
Agri South Africa’s legal advisor Annelize Crosby agreed with Mashele.
She said farmers owe the banks about R144 billion and if Section 25 of the Constitution is amended to expropriate land without compensation, the economy will suffer.
“If our farmers go bankrupt if you take their land and they can’t keep on doing the business they do to produce food, banks will suffer great loses.”
Mashele said the reality is that black people in urban areas don’t want to farm but want jobs and land to live on.