E Molewa: Bakwena Ba Mogopa Snymansdrift Farm handover
celebration

26 August 2006

Programme Director
Ntate Moruti P Tshikane
Chief Land Claims Commissioner Rre Tozi Gwanya and other Commissioners
present
Communal Property Association Chairperson, Mr H P Mahuma
Executive Mayor of the Madibeng Local Municipality, Cllr S F
Molokoane-Machika
Mayors and councillors
Kgosigadi M C Mathibedi of the Bakwena Ba Mogopa and all Our Esteemed
Traditional Leaders present
Sechaba Sa Bakwena Ba Mogopa
Ba Gaetsho Dumelang!

It is a great honour for me to be part of this historical moment of the
Snymansdrift Farm Handover Celebration today. I am certain that the African
ancestors of liberation and freedom are smiling upon the community of Madibeng
and the North West province at this particular moment in time.

I would like to begin this address by quoting one of these African
ancestors, the first independent leader of a free Zaire, the present day
Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Lumumba who once said:

“The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history
which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations. It
will be the history that will be taught in the countries which have won freedom
from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history and in both
north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity.”

I believe that today we are writing an extremely important chapter of the
history of Bakwena Ba Mogopa by returning the Snymansdrift Farm to the rightful
owners who were deprived of their land during one of the most vehement land
grabbing in the southern parts of Africa.

Today we are righting the wrongs of the past. Today we are re-writing
history itself to reflect our ordinary people’s struggles to own and work the
lands for the collective benefit of their communities. As we said at the
beginning of the year during our State of the Province address, that we will
continue to deploy our resources in the agricultural sector to boost rural
development and assist both commercial and emergent farmers.

Among other things, this commitment means we must accelerate government's
programme of restoring both the land and human dignity to the previously
disadvantaged people of our province and our country.

Writing in his seminally prophetic book South Africa Belongs to Us, Francis
Meli said: “The Native Land Act of 1913 allotted more than 90% of the total
land to the white population of just one and a half million, while the African
population of five and a half million got less than 10%. This legalised land
robbery forced many Africans to the towns, beginning the urbanization and
continuing the proletarianisation of Africans. In other words the Land Act had
the double function of suppressing the emergent African peasantry which was
becoming a threat to the white farmer and also creating a mass of cheap labour
in the rural areas.”

Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to address not only the
plight, loss and misery that were to befall many black rural communities over
the years since 1913, but also to reaffirm our commitment as government to
return both the land and dignity to people whom history dealt a cruel blow.

Let me emphasise the historical importance of this moment thus: the late
paramount chief of the Bakwena Ba Mogopa, Kgosi James Ernest Theodore Lerothile
Mamogale was the one who lodged this claim on behalf of the Royal Family of
Bakwena Ba Mogopa in October 1995 but he unfortunately passed away before the
completion of the claim.

His successor, Kgosi Lerothile Mamogale also passed away before this
important claim could be finalised. According to archival records the then
Department of Lands and Native Affairs was instrumental in effecting removal of
blacks from the farm Snymansdrift 413 JQ. The removal was racially motivated
and in 1947 Snymansdrift 413 JQ was finally transferred to the hands of white
ownership from black ownership.

Nevertheless we are today not to moan and raise the skeletons of the past,
but we are here to correct a crucial aspect of that “Black Spot” in our
collective history by returning Snymansdrift 413 JQ to the Bakwena Ba Mogopa
and the community.

In this regard, we are heartened to note that presently the land measures
366 hectares and are currently used for a wide range of farming activities
including irrigation, piggery, citrus and eco-tourism or game farming.

I have been further reassured that more than 150 people will benefit by the
restoration of the farm.

Therefore in conclusion, I would like to say that the North West Provincial
Government, together with the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, is
indeed very pleased today to achieve our common mission of restoring land,
human dignity and respect to some of the historically disadvantaged South
Africans.

In the words of the African revolutionary Patrice Lumumba, today history
speaks. Today Africa is writing its history in both north and south and it is a
history of glory and dignity.

I thank you very much for your attention.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
26 August 2006