Cape Town - The EFF in the province has accused the DA and the Freedom Front Plus of still believing in the notion of divide and conquer in order to separate black people and make sure that the status quo of landlessness remained intact.
Introducing a debate on the lack of access to land for poor, marginalised and emerging black, coloured and Indian farmers in the Western Cape, EFF deputy provincial chairperson and MPL Thembile Klaas said there has been no transformation in the province when it came to land.
Klaas said according to the 2019 National Land Audit Report more than 2.7 million hectares of agricultural land in the Western Cape was in the hands of white people, while together all the land owned by blacks, coloured and Indian people was less than 50% of that figure inspite of being the majority.
He said that when it came to residential land, the problem remained the same. “When questions are being posed on why there are no social housing developments in the CBD, we are told that land is expensive.
“However, the same province went out of its way to litigate against an opportunity to turn the Tafelberg area into a social housing opportunity.”
Responding to the debate, Agriculture MEC Ivan Meyer referred to the EFF’s policies as “land grabbing” and modelled on Venezuela’s land reforms which involved expropriation without compensation benefiting only politicians.
He said in Venezuela the policies had led to a decline in food production and a collapse of the economy and if adopted in South Africa the same would happen.
GOOD Party MPL Peter de Villiers said the province’s pattern of land ownership ensured the continuation of the socio-economic and spatial exclusion of the past and nothing has been done towards transformation of land and production ownership.
He said: “Farmers without land are like rugby players without a ball.”
“They may know the game, but they’re unable to play.”
Supporting the debate, leader of the opposition Cameron Dugmore said the ANC believed that the key obstacle to land redistribution in the Western Cape was the DA.
He said the DA and Premier Alan Winde had not directed any provincial resources to land redistribution.
He said they were fighting tooth and nail against the Expropriation Bill and did not have the political will to change the unequal and discriminatory ownership pattern of agricultural land ownership in the province.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za