QUOTES | BLF leader Andile Mngxitama tackles land issue on his new YouTube channel

Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama says land must be returned to black people as this will help eradicate poverty and aid in achieving equality among black and white people.

Promoting his newly launched YouTube channel, “The Black Perspective”, last week, Mngxitama said he sought to counter “the white perspective” and challenge the media, TimesLIVE reported. 

Here are five quotes which summarise the first episode: 

The land is not free

“When Nelson Mandela and white people negotiated the so-called democracy in 1994, the one thing white people made sure was in the constitution is section 25, which is also called the property clause. What it means is that if you want land as a black person, you must buy it from white people.”

To understand SA, understand its past

“You can't understand SA without understanding the land question, and to understand the land question you must go back to 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck arrived and murdered people, and took our land by force and turned SA into what it is today, where white people are the lords and black people the tenants.”

Those without land remain poor 

“The land relations, where white people have the land and black people are landless, determine the fact that black people are poor and white people are rich. Black people live in squatter camps, in townships and are excluded. White people live in the suburbs and are taken care of. It determines even the fact that white people can still be racist, because the social power that makes it possible for white people to be racist comes from the land.”

Land equals dignity 

“The land question is not significant, it's fundamental in the identity of a people.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa and EFF leader Julius Malema say black people must get 'reject land'

"[Malema] says black people want unproductive land, unused land, reject land. This is important because this is what Ramaphosa says. He's been saying 'you can do your land expropriation provided it does not affect the economy, provided that it does not affect white people'.”