L Xingwana: Rysmierbuilt community land hand-over celebration and launch
of Ilima/Letsema campaign

23 November 2006

Honourable Premier, Edna Molewa,
Honourable MEC for Agriculture, Mr Mayisela,
Members of Parliament,
Executive Mayor,
Councillors,
Traditional leaders here present,
Chief Land Claims Commissioner, Mr Thozi Gwanya,
Commissioner for Gauteng and North West Provinces, Ms Tumi Seboka,
Senior officials from various departments,
Members of Farmers Unions, National Farmers Union (Nafu) and Agriculture South
Africa (AgriSA),
The previous land owner of this farm Mr Casper Botha
Land non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other organs of civil
society
Claimants as well as beneficiaries
Distinguished guests
Halala bomastandi base Rysmierbuilt halala!
Halala banini mhlaba base Rysmierbuilt halala!
Ubuyile umhlaba, ubuyile!
Umhlaba ubuyile!

On 17 June I was in Bessiesvlei, not far from here, to hand over land. Today
we are here to celebrate the restoration of your land.

In the past few weeks we locked ourselves at the lekgotla in Benoni with the
MECs and their head of departments (HODs), the Directors-General (DGs), land
commissioners, senior managers from land affairs and agriculture, Land Bank,
etc. Our main theme was the launch of project Gijima and the revival of
"Ilima/Letsema". Sithi "gijima umhlaba weRysmierbuilt community ubuyele
ebantwini". Gijima abantu balime lo mhlaba ungaka sibanika wona, gijima! Gijima
abantu balime lo mhlaba bahleli kuwo ungalinywanga, gijima! This land falls
within the famous maize triangle, where cattle sheep and goats can help you
drive poverty away. I have seen beautiful huge bulls on this farm this morning
and I was excited when thinking ahead that these could be your own cattle. The
days of manna are gone, now you have to work very hard to get this quality of
cattle. Mr Botha told me that these cattle cost about R25 000 and this should
be the kind of income that you should be making from this land.

Within this month of November we have launched Ilima/Letsema campaign in
Gauteng province where we handed over 3 800 hectors of land to Kudung
community. Last week we launched Letsema at Magwa in the Eastern Cape where we
handed over 12 200 hectors to AmaMpondo kaFaku. Today we are here to restore 2
886 hectors to you. We have lined up other Ilima campaigns before Christmas in
Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape.

I am very happy that today we started emasimini, sayolima. Namhlanje
sizokuthi phantsi ngendlala phantsi! Phantsi ngobuhlwempu phantsi! Phambili
ngolimo, phambili!

Today we have revived an age old culture yabaTswana, the culture of
Vuk'uzenzele, the culture of seizing the available opportunity and working with
our own hands to change our fate. Today the Rysmierbuilt community have
declared war against poverty. Today we are here to say "gijima, gijima". We are
here to say "work, bereka." We are here to say "lima, lima." If we do not work
hard on our land ourselves, who will do it for us? We can't expect an angel to
drop from heaven and produce food for us. Manna came once and that was the end
of it. You can't expect manna today; you must work hard to produce your own
food from your own land. President Mbeki said recently "asiyomitya le
zizandla", use your own hands to attain your economic freedom. We know that
"God helps those who take the initiative to help themselves."

Today we are to say, 'masibuyele emasimini siyo lima, just like our parents
did.' Our parents refused to be employed on farms hence the colonisers got
slaves from India to come and work on sugar cane farms in KwaZulu-Natal. Our
parents produced their own food. Today we are here to say, "let us emulate what
our parents did." Let our approach to life be 'vukuzenzele.'

The champions of Ilima are the MECs, that is why he is here with us today.
The champions of this Ilima campaign are the mayors, that is why the mayors
have committed that they will include this project in their Integrated
Development Plans (IDPs). The agricultural extension officers must be visible
with a distinct uniform, say green for agriculture and the green
revolution.

We are worried about the increasing number of "imikhukhu" (informal
settlements). These are the people who come to the urban centres in search for
jobs but when they arrived they become disappointed because there are no jobs.
Get the people out of informal settlements. Let them go back and work on the
land to reduce poverty.

Mr Jacob Lebogang Motingoe lodged this land claim on 26 October 1998 and Mr
Petrus Mosweu on 7 July 1996. The two claims were consolidated as they
implicate the same properties and indeed they were accepted as valid in terms
of Section 11 (1) of the Restitution Act. The claimants claimed restitution in
their capacity as the direct descendants of the originally dispossessed and
representative of the community.

The Rysmierbuilt community was the first to occupy the claimed properties in
1866 with unregistered rights. Around the 1940s, white people flocked into the
area as it had been proclaimed as an alluvial digging area. Section 23 (1) and
24 (1) of the Native Trust and Land Act No 18 of 1936 states that no person
should reside and/or prospect in a digging area without written permission,
i.e. digger's certificate. Black people could not obtain digger's certificate
but could only remain in the area through certificate of character as set out
by section 60 of the Precious Stones Act 44 of 1927, which served as a permit
for those black people who were seen as "desirable", "fit" and "proper" and
therefore could remain in the area. The community continued to reside on the
farm until 1965.

In 1965 the local police wrote to the commissioner of native affairs that
the black people should be moved from the area. The police wanted the Native
Trust and Land Act of 1936 to take precedence over the Precious Stone Act,
which would lead to the disposal of certificate of character. The Native Trust
Land Act would then be used as a tool to remove black people from the area. The
native affairs commissioner then responded to the letter by stating that by the
end of the year 1965 no houses owned by a black person shall be left standing.
The police instructed by the Department of Native Affairs and assisted by white
farmers who forcefully removed all the black people in the area that year.

It is also reported on the White Paper on South African Land Policy that
black land owners were afforded second class status as manifested by the
created legal insecurity, which made it difficult for blacks to protect their
land whether from confiscation or from others coming to settle amongst them. It
is therefore evident that the dispossession effected on the Rysmierbuilt
Community was as a result of racially discriminatory laws that initially
stemmed from the second hand land rights afforded black people.

In terms of the Restitution Act of 1994 as amended, Section 1 (1) defines
the right in land as "any right in land whether registered or unregistered and
may include the interest of labour tenant and sharecropper, a customary law
interest, the interest of a beneficiary under a trust arrangement and
beneficial occupation for a continuous period of not less than 10 years prior
to the dispossession in question." The families held unregistered rights
translating into beneficial occupational rights for a continuous period of up
to 99 years of employment of the following activities which included but not
limited to residential, hunting, crop and stock farming. Secondly, customary
law interest manifested through shared rules governing the land use and
administration. In 1940, when the white people came to reside in the area part
of the community was provided a non-lucrative choice to relocate elsewhere at
their own cost, or remain behind as labour tenants. The part of the community
opted for the latter until the removal occurred in 1965.

I am glad that this land which is currently used for agriculture and stock
farming will continue to be used for that purpose to the benefit of the 749
households of the Rysmierbuilt community.

Today I am restoring portion one Rysmierbuilt 88 IQ, portion one of
Witkoppies 87 IQ, remaining extent of Zamekoms 86 IQ and portions 3, 10, 12,
13, 24, 25 and Rooidraai 85 IQ. We are paying no less than R25 462 290 to
restore this 2 886 hectors of land to you today.

I must point out that I am very disappointed by news surrounding the in
fighting among the claimants in this community. In Putfontein not far from here
we handed over land more than four years ago but that land has not been put to
production to date, mainly because there is a dispute between the Communal
Property Association's (CPA) and the traditional authority on who is in charge.
They have not accessed our grants and the other Comprehensive Agricultural
Support Programme (CASP) and Micro-Agricultural Finance Scheme of South Africa
(MAFISA) assistance from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Land
Bank. We won't allow greed and power mongering to derail land reform. I know
that the Premier's office, the provincial Department of Agriculture together
with the commission is doing their best to help resolve these disputes. But you
are the best people to resolve your own disputes. Poverty is the biggest enemy
confronting our families so we don't have time for infighting.

I am happy to know that the previous landowner in this particular farm, Mr
Casper Botha, has made a contribution towards the success of this occasion as
well as for the restoration of land. He has actively participated in resolving
some of the disputes that have marred the communities and more importantly, he
provided a Brahman bull for this occasion. Let us give Mr Botha a big round of
applause! He is intending to work together with the beneficiaries on this
project. This is informed by the current contract he has with McCain Foods Ltd
to supply them with peas and potatoes or whatever commodity his client prefers.
We are in the process of concluding a joint venture and or strategic
partnership agreement with claimants, McCain and Castello Boerdery.

There are about 16 landowners whose land is affected by this claim. About
six are supporting restitution but the other ten are resisting the process. The
President has given me very short time to settle outstanding claims and to
redistribute 30 percent of agricultural land by 2014. I therefore don't have
the luxury of protracted negotiations that do not yield any results. Once we
have done property evaluation using a professional and independent valuer and
we have made the offer to the landowner, we will not hesitate to expropriate
such land in the interest of land reform.

The commission's report regarding the claim indicates that 90 percent of the
restitution beneficiaries live below the poverty line, e.g. earning between R0
to R1 500 a month. Most claimants are between the ages of 25 to 60 years of
age. This indicates that the community consists of mostly economically inactive
people. This is an opportunity for claimants to uplift their livelihood as well
as to strengthen the local economy. The report from the Department of
Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (DACE) extension specialist indicated
that the farm has a good infrastructure. Thus dry cropping with high potential
soils with a long term average maize yield of three to four tons per hector.
The farm has a carrying capacity of one hectare per Large Stock Unit (1ha/LSU)
for planted pastures and five to six ha/LSU on natural veld.

I would like the development plan for this land to ensure increased
productivity, capacity building and skills transfer, job creation and poverty
eradication strategy. The development plan must reflect the priorities of the
Accelerated and Sustainable Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA).

Claimants have agreed to allow for the excision of certain piece of land
from their claimed property to make way for the envisaged building of a clinic
and an agricultural school.

During her visit in South Africa earlier last year, Professor Wangari
Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to
sustainable development, democracy and peace in Kenya said, "Development is
about the ability of the community taking charge of their own destiny. You are
the reflection of your future generation and never be remembered on what you
wanted to achieve but what you have actually done for your people."

Poverty is a nightmare. It is a vicious circle of hunger, poor health,
reduced working capacity, low productivity and shortened life expectancy and
indeed poverty is a curse that we should, all of us here today, we must, deal
against it. These masses expect of us that everyday and wherever we maybe, we
should speak out and act against poverty. They expect that we will approach the
challenge of poverty eradication honestly without hesitation and implement
programmes that actually produce results.

Once more we are here to renew our commitment and dedication in the fight
against poverty by ensuring that your energy focuses on the right place. The
time of talking about the statistics of the claims settled is no longer my
priority now as I am certain by 2008 all claims shall have been finalised. My
main focus is to how ready we can be to convert the land we have received into
gold. Over the past month I have been restoring land throughout this country
and I am honest when I am saying the history of dispossession is same or
similar in many respects. It invokes painful memories, historical emotions, the
same way as this one does. However, I must hasten to add that this process also
brings reconciliation. Today we have seen how the landowner Mr Botha and the
claimants are willing to work together into the future. "United we stand and
divided we fall," let us keep up the good work.

Let me acknowledge the good work done by those dedicated officials in the
Commission and the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs who are dedicated
to make land and agrarian reform a success. For those who are working shy, this
is not slumber land! For those who are ever on sick leave they must finish
getting sick, this is not a hospital otherwise they must consider sick pension.
The message for all of us is gijima!

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all the best in this project. I am
leaving this place with a big hope for success. Land restoration comes with
responsibility. I am praying that you get God's grace to deal with all the
issues that will take you to the future, which will make your children's
children very proud of you. The choices that you make today determine your
destiny.

Phambili ngelima phambili!
Phambili ngolimo phambili!
Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi, malibongwe!
Amandla!

Issued by: Department of Agriculture
23 November 2006