Note to Editors: the statement the attendance of the DA Shadow Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Thandeka Mbabama MP, of the public land hearing at the Orient Theatre in East London today. Ms Mbabama was also joined by the Buffalo City Coastal Constituency Leader, Kevin Mileham MP, Enoch Mgijima Constituency Leader, Terri Stander MP, and the Chairperson of the Gwatyu Communal Property Association (CPA), Thembakazi Matsheke.
Please find pictures here, and here. Also find attached an English soundbite by Thembakazi Matsheke.
Molweni
It is great to be here in East London today to attend the third of four of the Constitutional Review Committee land hearings in the Eastern Cape. This is one of the most beautiful corners of South Africa and not far from my home.
The DA are attending this hearing to listen to and observe the will of the people. We will always champion individual land ownership, property rights for all and strongly reject any amendment to section 25 of the Constitution intended to expropriate land without compensation. It is encouraging to experience many other citizens championing the same cause here today.
None more so than the representatives of the more than 1 500 people of Gwatyu who continue to fight to own and work the land that they have lived on for over half a century. It has been more than four months since the DA became an ally in their fight for ownership of land in their own right and the winds of change are already starting to blow across their beautiful community.
While the Chairperson of the Gwatyu CPA, Thembakazi Matsheke, was speaking ahead of the hearing today, a Land Rights inquiry should be underway in Gwatyu. The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, has ensured us of this.
But while this development is welcomed, there is no way of knowing whether the service provider is on track to deliver this report to the Department because the Minister has not yet clarified who the service provider is for the provision of the Land Rights Audit or spoken to the registration of the Gwatyu CPA. This is critical because one of the key terms of the 2016 Action Plan towards the Registration of the Gwatyu CPA that was agreed to by her predecessor was that the Gwatyu CPA would be registered within 90 days of the 2016 Budget Speech which was more than two years ago.
This is an agreement that the DA remains willing to take legal action to enforce if necessary. We will not hesitate to take legal action to compel the ANC government to secure ownership right for the people of Gwatyu.
In the two years that the Department has reneged on this commitment, the people of Gwatyu have grown restless and tired of waiting. They have always been locked out of the economy by the ANC government and so appropriately assemble under the creed of ‘nothing for us, about us, without us.’
Members of the Gwatyu CPA gave life to this creed through their submissions at the land rights hearing in Queenstown yesterday. And the Chairperson of their Executive Committee, Thembakazi Matsheke, intends to deliver a submission on behalf of the CPA at today’s hearing.
The DA are always reminded of Thembakazi’s 87-year-old father, Sdodo Matsheke, who to this day has not been given ownership of the Maties farm. He lives on this farm with Thembakazi and her six siblings, whom we had the great privilege of meeting in Gwatyu earlier this year and remain inspired by their unshakeable refusal to give up.
Our fight is for ownership because it empowers people economically and liberates them from dependence on the ANC government which has failed them since 1994, and uTat’uMatsheke since 1931. And as long as the ANC continues to spend more each year on VIP protection for politicians than on land reform, justice and land reform will remain empty promises to the Matsheke family and Gwatyu CPA.
The Constitution is a sacred document and a blue print for building our shared future. It has not failed us, the ANC government has failed us, and amending the constitution will only enable ANC government corruption to continue giving land to the connected few at the expense of the many which will never achieve justice.
Ask the beneficiaries of the 62% of all land reform projects that succeeded under DA run governments or the recipients of more than 91 000 title deeds where we govern. They will be the first to tell you that land reform is justice and the DA continues to deliver both without touching the Constitution.
Since April, we have visited Gwatyu, written to the Minister over the registration of the Gwatyu CPA and a Promotion of Access to Information Request (PAIA) for the previous Land Right inquiry. The President has been invited to join us on another visit to Gwatyu during replies to his Budget Speech and we have marched with the Gwatyu CPA to Parliament during the Minister’s Budget Speech.
If the Minister does right by her commitment, the Gwatyu beneficiaries can expect to receive the report on the Land Rights inquiry by 28 October. And while the ANC government may currently be holding the 88 farms spanning 42 000 hectares in Gwatyu, the people of Gwatyu cannot be held.
The Land Rights inquiry has the very real potential to totally change this status quo. It remains our mission for this total change to be effected for the Gwatyu 1 500.