House Chairperson, the APC supports the current land reform programme as an attempt to reverse the unfortunate and criminal effects of the 1913 Land Act. However, I don't want to focus on what was done in 1913, but I want to say: What are the grandsons of those who acquired the land in 1913 doing today in 2013?
I want to talk about Mr Radebe, who, together with his family of more than 30, were evicted from a farm in November 2012 and were dumped at Ntombe Community Hall in Piet Retief. They all share that community hall as a bedroom, a kitchen and everything. As we speak here today, the smaller children of that family do not attend school because they have been removed from a home which used to be near their school.
Mr Radebe has lost about 130 goats, as well as chickens and cattle. His maize storage tanks were smashed and his two tractors were vandalised. He was a very successful farmer. Illiterate as he is, he actually used to look after and feed local or poor neighbouring people. As we are talking today, they live in poverty because they have been evicted from a farm and dumped in a community hall.
I was told this morning that officials from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform have raised the possibility of their being returned to the farm where they were evicted. Now, the question is: If Mr Radebe is going to be returned to his farm, who is going to compensate him for all this time that they have spent staying in that hall and for all his implements and property that were vandalised? It is common knowledge in the areas around Wakkerstroom, Greylingsdal, Commondale, Driekoppies and other areas that farmers are a law unto themselves. I have met people who claim that when the farmers heard that they had sold some of their cattle, white men in balaclavas visited them at night, beat them up and demanded the money that they got from selling those cattle. I have seen men who have been shot. One still has a bullet lodged in his jaw; one has had a leg amputated; and others have lost their eyes because of the brutality of the grandsons of those who benefited in 1913.
As we talk about land reform, we need to ask, what do we do to protect our people who are currently farm dwellers? Almost all of them are illiterate, but they can say: "When we still had that small piece of land on those farms, we never went hungry because we used to feed ourselves." So, the story that says, "if our people are given land, then we are going to starve", does not exist.
Comrade Minister, as the APC, we will certainly support all the efforts that rid us of this willing-buyer, willing-seller concept. Most of us buy furniture not for cash, but on credit and take 12 to 24 months to pay. Why can it not be that whenever we acquire farms, we don't have to pay all the money at the same time, so that we can spread the number of farms that can be acquired? Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]