Hon House Chairperson, hon members, distinguished guests, the passing of the Natives Land Act of 1913 should have been classified as a criminal act. It was because of this Act and many others that were passed to reinforce it that apartheid was declared a crime against humanity.
The Act stripped black people of their dignity and rendered them landless. Chiefs and kings were stripped of their authority. How do you have a chief or a king who does not preside over any territory? If apartheid was a crime, how do we deal with the proceeds of a crime? People acquired land on the basis of this Act. They have title deeds that are, in Azapo's view, defective.
I am informed by a lawyer friend that a defective title deed will remain defective no matter how many times it changes hands. The Kempton Park process, and later the Constitution of the Republic of SA cemented what was done in 1913 by entrenching the so-called "property rights" and "guaranteeing property rights". The Kempton Park negotiations legalised the landlessness of the so-called "natives" and made legal title deeds that were questionable.
Our people are subjected to a system called willing-buyer, willing-seller. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has now had a rude awakening and declared to the country that the willing-buyer, willing- seller system is not helpful. We will not say "we told you so". The department is now making muted and vague calls for expropriation. But how do we move forward?
We must declare some kind of jubilee, "an acceptable year of the Lord," where the state must take possession of all the land in South Africa. The state must hold the land in trust for all the citizens. The system will work almost like what is known as the Ingonyama Trust, except that it will apply to the whole country. Natural or legal citizens will then be required to acquire land based on their needs. As Members of Parliament, MPs, we have taken an oath of allegiance to the Constitution, but nowhere in the oath does it say that the Constitution will never be amended.
Land dispossession started before 1913. It started in 1652, when the first settler set foot in the country. If we talk about 1913, what are we saying about the wars of resistance that occurred before then? What are we saying about the struggle by King Bambatha and many others who fought in the struggle?
Land is sacred among many communities. Any debate on land will therefore be emotional and an emotive matter. God forbid that there should come a time when our people feel that they have to fight or are even prepared to die for their land. The piecemeal approach to addressing land dispossession has not worked. It is too expensive. Thank you. [Applause.]