Hon Deputy Speaker, hon members and guests in the gallery, land was the primary reason our people waged the liberation struggle. The struggle was a direct response to decades of land dispossession and conquest, where people were forcefully removed from their ancestral land. The so-called land reform was meant to reverse that and to change ownership patterns. The process was supposed to return land to the rightful owners.
Azapo does not understand how government could conduct an audit that did not ask whether the people who owned land were black or white. How do we hope to evaluate changes in ownership patterns if we do not want to ask that question?
Let us talk about the 14% of the land in state hands, and I want to be very clear. Azapo believes that the land, the sea and air space, and minerals, must belong to the people, with the state holding it in trust. So, in our view, it is 100% of the land that must be in the state's hands, as a trustee, on behalf of the people.
Government tied itself into knots, however, with the so-called property clause. Guaranteeing property rights meant guaranteeing the poverty and landlessness of the people. So, as we receive the report today, Azapo's cry and clarion call is, Mayibuye i-Afrika. [Let it return, the Africa we have lost.] We thank you. [Interjections.] [Applause.]