Hon Deputy Speaker, let me join you in congratulating hon Stone Sizani and Doris Dlakude on their elevation and I assure them of my and hon Kubayi's unqualified support. [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon Minister Gugile Nkwinti, as we reflect on this question of land, let us focus on the land and the native questions, their political, cultural, social and economic impact on South African society.
Since the arrival of the European settlers in Southern Africa, African kings and queens led wars of resistance against land dispossession, slavery, colonialism and colonial exploitation. In 1885 Western powers met in Berlin, where they agreed to partition and share Africa, disregarding the cultural and territorial integrity of African peoples.
At the end of the 19th century, African leaders were conquered, giving colonial powers the opportunity to start the process of colonisation of the continent and exploitation of its natural resources. Black people participated on both sides of the Anglo-Boer War hoping that in the event of victory, they would regain their civil and political rights, land and its natural resources. Instead the Britons and the Boers reconciled at the expense of black people by legalising the colour bar in terms of the Treaty of Vereeniging in 1902.
Soon thereafter the Lagden Commission recommended a territorial segregation between black and white. This was followed by the establishment of the "whites" only Union of South Africa, which made the governor general the supreme chief of all native communities and dressed him with powers to appoint or dismiss any traditional African leader at his pleasure. It was largely those traditional leaders who resisted colonisation and exploitation who were deposed.
The Constitution of the Union of South Africa laid a firm foundation for a racially-based society, leading to the destruction of African kingships and queenships and land dispossession. The Voortrekkers forcibly occupied the land of local communities, forcing them to wage wars of resistance. When these communities were conquered, for instance, the Transvaal Republic began to demarcate the land into native locations, forcibly driving Africans into them, disregarding their cultural and territorial integrity, sanctity of historical landmarks and religious sites and denied them access to the natural resources they needed to satisfy their basic needs. It is this racially-based constitutional system that allowed the white minority government to pass the Natives Land Act of 1913 and the subsequent Native Trust and Land Act of 1936.
The colonial forces treated African peoples as subhuman and treated the prisoners of the wars of resistance harshly. For instance, after the Jameson Raid the Matabele captives were marched from Botswana to the Cape Colony, where they were sold into slavery. In the Greater Letaba area 400 Balobedu women and children were marched from Modjadjiskloof to the outskirts of Pretoria, where they were endangered. More than 5 000 cattle belonging to Queen Modjadji and her senior traditional leaders, notably Chief Makgoba, were confiscated and distributed among white farmers.
However, African people who continued to farm, notably Pixley ka Isaka Seme, were more successful than the white farmers. To address this challenge, the white farmers appealed to the Union government to outlaw the purchase of farmlands by black people. In response to the racist Union, Parliament passed the 1913 NativesLand Act, which allocated only 7% of the total surface of South Africa to the black majority. The resulting overcrowding, deforestation and land hunger forced the racist Union Parliament to increase the land allocated to African people to only 13% of the total surface of the country.
The land allocated to Africans was divided into native reserves that were barren and less productive and forced Africans to reduce their livestock. Thus the seeds of poverty, unemployment and inequality and general underdevelopment were sown at the time. This forced Africans to migrate to white farms, households and mines to seek jobs. The slave wages they received were sent to the native reserves to sustain their families.
The migratory labour system left African women and children alone in the native reserves. To a large extent, these female-headed families had to fend for themselves. The influx control laws were introduced to prevent these families from joining their husbands in the white areas. Thus the social cohesion of African families and communities was eroded.
The destruction of African kingdoms and queenships was consolidated by the Native Administration Act, Act 38 of 1927, which empowered the governor- general as the supreme chief of all native tribes to appoint native commissioners for the administration of native affairs. The native chiefs were appointed by the governor-general and held office at his pleasure. This tribal system of government was used to keep Africans outside the main politics of the country.
The formation of the ANC in 1912 and their deputations to the United Kingdom, protests by women led by Charlotte Maxeke and the trade union movement led by Clements Kadalie, and demands for the Black Republic led by the ANC president Josiah Gumede yielded no fruits. Instead the nationalist party came into power on the platform of apartheid in 1948. The National Party refined the racial policies of the Union government, which came to be known as apartheid colonialism.
The apartheid authorities introduced the Group Areas Act of 1950 to consolidate racial segregation in the urban areas. Meanwhile African peoples had participated in both World War I and World War II, hoping that in the event of victory they would regain their civil and political rights. The ANC even documented the national grievances of African people in the 1923 and 1943 Bills of Rights. The failure of colonial and apartheid authorities to address their grievances gave birth to radical African nationalism led by the Youth League of Nelson Mandela and Anton Lembede, who were profoundly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and Marcus Garvey's radical Pan-Africanism.
The ANC Youth League introduced the 1949 Programme of Action, which demanded the right of African people to self-determination and the land and its natural resources. This programme laid the foundation for the struggles from the early 1950s, the Women's Charter of 1954 and the Freedom Charter of 1955. The Freedom Charter provided a blueprint for the post-apartheid constitutional vision that found its way into the 1996 South African Constitution.
The Freedom Charter sought to reconstruct a country fragmented by apartheid and build a united, nonsexist and prosperous country. The Freedom Charter was adopted by the people of South Africa as a whole, both black and white. The people demanded a government based on the will of the people as a whole; sharing of the land by those who work it; recognition of the cultures and traditions of all national groups. In sum, the Freedom Charter demanded the political, cultural, social and economic rights of all South Africans, black and white.
The people's demands notwithstanding, the apartheid authorities adopted a host of legislation which turned the native reserves into homeland governments. This legislation was applied arbitrarily, further fragmenting African communities regardless of their cultural unity and territorial integrity. Thus apartheid sought to reserve the gains made by the ANC towards the formation of a socially cohesive nation.
In the process of establishing the homeland system, the native reserves were redemarcated. New tribes and chiefdoms were created while some chiefs who were defeated were exiled and other kings or chiefs were reduced to the status of indunas. One of them is chief Tswale from Modjadjiskloof, who is with us here today. He is there in the gallery. There are still chiefs and communities that are landless; that are internally exiled by colonialism and by apartheid. For instance, Matidza of Luonde, Masakona, Magoro, Maupa and Makgoba in Limpopo province are landless chiefs. They are in exile in the country of their birth.
The creation of the homeland system deepened and entrenched the roots of poverty, unemployment, inequaliy and underdevelopment in general. The situation is the greatest threat to our democracy, the South African and the African agenda. The current rural development and land reform policies and programmes as well as claims for the restoration of kingdoms and queenships are an integral part of the reconstruction and development of the new South Africa envisaged by the Freedom Charter.
There are many communities, especially the Khoisan who did not lodge their land claims before the closing date, who were also dispossessed before 1913. The land concerned also included sacred and historical sites of indigenous African communities. The other challenge is that since the opening of the land claims process on 31 December 1998 only 8% of the land has been restituted.
The slow process of land restitution resulted in the land hunger, the desire for housing and development, creating a scramble for communal land and demands for title deeds to give to rural people, which can create further problems because the banks would attach the land. The communal land is linked to the history, identities, spiritual and cultural heritage of the people.
Let me conclude by saying that land reform is in the good hands of Minister Gugile Nkwinti. What a good choice by the ANC. [Time expired.] [Applause.]