WATCH | Rumble in the jungle: Highlights from the land debate between Mngxitama and Roodt

Whose land is it anyway?

That was the question as the leader of the Black First Land First movement Andile Mngxitama and economist Dawie Roodt went head-to-head in Cape Town on Tuesday in a debate on land expropriation.

Mngxitama warned that a land war was inevitable in SA. He claimed 35‚000 white people in South Africa owned 85% of the land. 

"White people killed us to get the land, and they were prepared to die for land. If we want land, it means we must be equally prepared to do so. That's why we say 'land or death'." 

Roodt‚ however‚ said according to research‚ fewer than 5% of black people in SA considered land to be the most important issue. “The most important issue is unemployment - we want jobs‚ we want to grow the economy in order to alleviate poverty in SA‚” said Roodt.

Roodt said farms were not the place where wealth creation happened. “People do not want farms. People want to stay in cities‚ where they can have proper and decent jobs. We are not going to break agricultural land into millions of small pieces and settle millions of small farmers in SA‚” he said.