The ANC has over 30 years dismally failed to execute the fundamental promise of our freedom struggle – land reform and restitution. This is a crime against the humanity of countless communities who have been betrayed.
The hopes of many now rest with Minister Mzwandile Nyhontso, leader of of the PAC, to seize this failure and turn it into an opportunity for the PAC to demonstrate how its fundamental commitment to land reform and restitution can turn our country into a successful model of post-colonial return of the land to its people to create ecosystems of thriving communities.
The ANC playbook on land reform and restitution is the same across the country: false promises of restoration; long delays in execution of the legal aspect of title to the land; demands by officials that business plans for redevelopment fit their own conditions of appropriateness; bureaucratic delays to engage and hand over the development capital needed into properly set up NPC’s by representative Community Property Associations; imposition of accountants of dubious connections with officials; inexplicable disappearances/blocking of access to funds for use to initiate the development of the properties.
I am witness to, and participant in the 1,5 thousand hectares Kranspoort Farm restitution process dating back to 1996. The playbook in our case is orchestrated by Dr Alidzuwi Nalezani, who has publicly declared himself the chief of Kranspoort without whom nothing can happen on the farm. The long-drawn process of restoring ownership and providing the legally mandated capital development funds, culminated in a business plan drawn up by a consultant hired by us with a total requirement of R100m being presented in 2016. The initial enthusiasm to support the business plan by the Limpopo Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development turned into silence for years.
The Kranspoort Community Property Association has had a running battle with an obstructionist DALRRD since 2019 after much to-ing and fro-ing. This resulted in a modified business plan with a R24m capital requirement. Only R11m was ultimately disbursed with extraordinary requirements. These included use of a DALRRD designated accountant, that has no basis in law nor in terms of the PFMA. The Kranspoort Community Property Association has an established NPC that is a legal person entitled to conduct its business within the accountabilities set out by law.
The bullying and delays occasioned by DALRRD has blocked access to the funds and opened the land up to invaders including a local Mara police officer photographed driving his cattle, using a police van, to graze on our land. The rich biodiversity in the area that the Endangered Wildlife Fund has detailed, is being destroyed by indiscriminate cutting down of indigenous trees and livestock grazing.
Our appeals to then Minister Thoko Didiza, yielded no relief. The Limpopo DALRRD, under Dr Nalizani, simply ignored then Min Didiza’s representative’s directives. The judicial system has also failed us. A 2019 court order given in our favour to protect our land, was undermined by an inexplicable acceptance of an appeal lodged by someone with no legal standing in this case. Another judge displayed unprofessional conduct in court, including leaving the Court without addressing the merits of the case, nor setting a date for a proper hearing.
The Kranspoort community is not the only one suffering from these miscarriages of justice and the impunity of government officials in violating the right of citizens to administrative justice. The Walman community, just north of Pretoria, is another case in point. The land restitution process has been hijacked by land invaders allocated plots by unknown people, on which they are building private homes. Neither the Gauteng Province nor the Tshwane Metro has intervened to protect the rights of the legitimate owners.
Closer home in Cape Town, District Six that remains a gaping wound. Most of the elderly beneficiaries have died without the justice they yearn for being done – restoring their land and heritage. The mismanagement and incompetence of national and provincial governments since 1994, constitute gross violations of the human rights of citizens and denial of their entitlement to administrative and restorative justice.
This is not only a disgrace for a constitutional democracy to fail at this scale, but a huge missed opportunity for our society. We should be uprooting poverty by enabling home ownership and creating livelihood opportunities to utilise land reform and restoration as engines of socio-economic development. Reimagining and rebuilding our economic base from inherited colonial models, is essential to create inclusive and productive thriving communities. Land reform and restitution could be powerful tools for healing our multigenerational traumas and restoring the dignity of all.
President Ramaphosa and Minister Nyhontso must rise to this challenge. They must hold errant officials to account for the violations of the rights of citizens. Professionally executed land reform and restitution is a huge opportunity to free the potential of all citizens. Our country deserves nothing less.
Mamphela Ramphele
Founder and Patron of ReimagineSA