Opinion

True voice of the people on the land question is being drowned out by a political chorus

12 August 2018 - 00:00 By Amil Umraw

Dressed in a navy-blue suit and a faux fur hat, Cyferskuil resident Isaac Mogale waited patiently alongside hundreds of people from Rustenburg and surrounding communities for his turn to address parliament's constitutional review committee.
After standing for 20 minutes with the aid of his cane, the 91-year-old man shuffled to the microphone and unzipped the black folder he was carrying. Inside was the title deed he had acquired for his grandfather's land and other legal documents showing his ownership of a 345ha chunk of farmland.
So began his last-ditch attempt to win the half-century battle for land that had belonged to his family, who were dispossessed during apartheid. The last hope, he believed, was for a constitutional provision that would allow the government to expedite the return of his family's land.
But like many others who attended parliament's hearings on the amendment of section 25 of the constitution, Mogale's views were drowned out by politically affiliated hordes who crammed the hearing venues across the country.In every province, the hearings were marked by people in red, yellow or blue regalia streaming out of buses and lining up to address the committee. It seemed to be a strategy based on quantity over quality: the more heads in attendance, the better the chance of the party's stance being expressed. And it was perfectly executed, especially by the EFF.
In an almost choral rendition of party policy, supporters mimicked their leaders' rhetoric and, in some cases, like in Mahikeng, berated any speaker with an opposing view.
It prompts the question: when President Cyril Ramaphosa "addressed the nation" wearing his ANC hat and said it had become "patently clear that our people want the constitution to be more explicit about expropriation of land without compensation, as demonstrated in the public hearings", was this opinion based on the views of the majority or on those of the interest groups whose voices were the loudest?
And how would he know unequivocally what "our people want" when parliament is yet to complete its consultative processes?
This brings to mind the words of Vincent Smith, the chair of the constitutional review committee, before each public hearing. He would warn the crowd that if they misbehaved, the voice of that particular community would be scrapped from the record, and 400 MPs would decide their fate instead.
His warnings appear to have been in vain.
The ANC has also given the department of rural development & land reform a political mandate to test the current constitutional provisions on 139 farms across the country.
Why does the ANC want to test current provisions if it has already made up its mind on a constitutional amendment? Why, after 24 years in government, is the ANC now expediting the drafting of the land records bill and the Redistribution Bill?
Enter the political jargon.ANC leaders will tell you they are taking a "multipronged" approach to land reform; that the parliamentary process is running parallel to their own; that they are doing everything in their power to give the land back to the people.
What the ANC won't tell you is that it has failed spectacularly to address the land issue. And that now, after many years, it is afraid.
The ANC's national support dropped to 62% in the 2014 election, but the real scare came during the local government election two years later when it received 55% of the national vote and lost the key metros of Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane.
Land ownership has taken centre stage ahead of next year's general election, and the ANC must be seen to be taking real steps towards reform if it is to regain any legitimacy on the issue - now dominated by the EFF.
Therefore, the party is rushing, not to bring a consolidated, well-researched plan to the table, but to be perceived as the champion in a populist narrative.
The fear of being held accountable at the polls for two decades of nondelivery should not take priority over the need for a developmentally effective, benign and realistic land reform programme.
The consequences of misjudgment in this regard are already there for all to see.
The City of Cape Town reported a 74% increase in land invasions year on year; one man was killed and four people were injured in protests over land in Gauteng; and various property developments in KwaZulu-Natal have ground to a halt due to illegal squatters.
Bungling the land question will fail not only Mogale's generation but many generations to come, who will remain destitute in a country where their forefathers once flourished...

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