The party that Ms Mazibuko is leading is telling South Africa that it stands for open opportunity for everybody. They tell us that they want freedom for people to buy and sell whatever they want; they want freedom of movement and freedom of everything. But the people who are free are the people with the money, the people they represent. People who have no money to buy land are not free.
Minister Nkwinti, tax all fallow land and get it back to the nation. [Applause.] Fix a ceiling on land ownership so that you can release the land to those who need it ... [Applause.] ... expropriate strategically located land so that you can deracialise the ownership of land ... [Applause.] ... protect the collective ownership of communal land while securing family tenure against discrimination against women and children ... [Applause.] ... initiate the fast-tracking of the socioeconomic right to land by indigent families, with the concomitant subdivision of agricultural land so that it is shared amongst those who need it ... [Applause.] ... and criminalise estate agents and government officials who create artificial beneficiaries and buy them land which they will never work on.
Hon Botha, failure of agricultural activity is not unique and is not limited only to black farmers. We know that experienced white farmers fail too. You stand here and talk as if it's only unique to black farmers, and yet you know white farmers do fail too.
Hon Cebekhulu, I accept what you said, but you are missing one point. Everybody standing in this Parliament always says 90% of the farms that have been given to people are failing. Mama Mashabalala specifically indicated during the Divided Land Conference at the University of Cape Town, that their traditional leader, Shabalala, likes to control everything about land, but never initiates development on it.
The workshop that we held here last weekend specifically indicated that there are good traditional leaders who know how to initiate development, but there are bad ones too. So, don't allocate all land to traditional leaders, including the bad ones. We should not allow that. The Ingonyama Trust Board is doing a good job. They must develop the land that they have. [Applause.]
We will not allow the privatisation of communal land. We will never do that, because we know it will be bought by the same people who say we must privatise it. We will protect it.
Hon Mulder, suddenly you are freeing the people you were always oppressing. This is very strange. [Interjections.] Please, sir, I want to talk to you. You only talk to your constituency and you don't talk to the people who feel the pain in your constituency. We want you to continue to defend the farmers. But we also want you to tell them that the landless and the poor that live on their farms must share the land as well. It is not possible, as Christian farmers to hold onto the land and not release it to be shared amongst those who need it. Please, sir, let's talk about that. You can't allow the farmers to cling to the land and never allow the poor people who live on their farms to have land.
Hon Dudley, we stood here and heard the voice of our own President, who said specifically that we would not meet the 30% target. Now you are telling us that, what we have said, so that it means that we have failed. Let me tell you the three reasons why this programme has failed. Firstly, we were sold marginal land and not the lucrative land which is being hoarded at this point. Secondly, that marginal land is sold expensively, and that prevents more land from being bought. Thirdly, that target was arbitrary; it has never been scientifically proven. Therefore, that is the reason we are not clinging to the target, but to the distribution of land to those people who need it, and not targets. [Applause.]
Hon Bhoola, there are many willing sellers, but there are no willing buyers, because the government is forced to buy. It's not the willing buyer, but a forced buyer. However, it is buying for the huge number of people who need land. [Interjections.]
Hon Godi, please, sir, the smash-and-grab is not new to South Africa. Many people think that it's experienced in Johannesburg, but it has been here since 1652, and it continues on the farms. Nkosi Khungwa was chased from Leeu-Gamka and killed near Alexandria, where he is buried. People took his land in 1812 already, and not 1820, when the settlers came. He was beheaded and killed and his land was taken. I'm told I am whipping up the racial tensions. Who is whipping up the racial tensions? The people who grabbed the land are whipping up the racial tensions. [Time expired.] [Applause.]