Geagte volksgenoteU kan die Groenskrif van die ANC se grondgryp planne aflaai deur hier die klik. Die dokument is sowat 3,1 MB groot en beslaan 129 bladsye.
Ons plaas hierna 'n kort en kragtige oorsig in die vorm van uittreksels uit die inhoud van die dokument.
Dit is opvallend dat "apartheid" deurgaans afgebreek word. Daar word minstens 50 keer na apartheid in die dokument verwys. Verder is dit insiggewend dat die dokument op elke bladsy in die agtergrond gemerk is "FINAL DRAFT 2. - 6 SEPTEMBER 2010". Dit is dieselfde dag waarop Dr. HF Verwoerd, die sogenaamde vader van apartheid, in 1966 vermoor is.
People often attend the same churches, schools and play for the same clubs and become members of the same stokvels, societies, trade unions, business organisations, political parties, co-operatives etc. These institutions create subcultures which bind them together. In rural communities relationships are much deeper as they tend to be historical and inter-generational. Mutuality is away of life which would have evolved organically, nourished and cemented by shared hard and good times. In African societies these relational virtues are captured in one word:
Ubuntu. This is the bedrock of African culture.
Colonialism and Apartheid sought at all times, and by all means to destroy it. Of all such means, the Natives Land Act, 1913 (Act No. 27 of 1913) and the migrant labour system are the ones which wreaked the most havoc in African rural communities, seriously undermining the virtues of Ubuntu as people lost their basic expression of Ubuntu – the ability to give or izinwe,
which disappeared with the loss of their land; they could no longer produce enough food to feed themselves; they could not keep livestock; they had to survive on meagre wages, which could hardly meet their family needs, let alone be generous and share with neighbours.BL. 2 - 3
Colonialism and apartheid brutalised black people, turning them into hostages to perennial hunger,related diseases and social strife and disorders. Rural development and land reform must be the catalyst in the ANC government’s mission to reverse this situation. It took centuries to inflict it on black people and it is going to take quite a while to address it, but it shall be done. That long road necessarily starts with the crafting of a new pragmatic but fundamentally altered land tenure system for the country. Any other option will perpetuate social fragmentation and underdevelopment.
BL. 3
In short, depending on the type of political choices we make, and the decisions we take now; and, the type of administrative actions we take, the processes, procedures and institutions we put in place, we will either bring about the desired social cohesion and development or we will perpetuate the
colonial-apartheid’s social fragmentation and underdevelopment.BL. 3
For the sake of clarity,
‘development’ indicators in this Green Paper are ‘shared growth and prosperity, full employment, relative income equality and cultural progress and those for
‘underdevelopment’ are ‘poverty, unemployment, inequality and cultural backwardness’.
BL. 3
This was not an isolated case. It was the South African story in the systematic denudation and impoverishment of black people. Our effort to bring about the corrective measures necessary totone down the anger, bitterness and pain of those who were subjected to this brutal treatment must be collective. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has adequately demonstrated
the capacity of black South Africans to forgive. BUT we should not take this goodwill for granted, because it is not inexhaustible. Working together we must build our collective future on this critical social asset.
Mr G E Nkwinti (MP)Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform
BL. 3
It provides a brief history of land reform in South Africa. It grounds the political economy of these reforms on the creation of a
capitalist economy supporting major industries and benefiting the white commercial farming sector.
BL. 10
Die volgende uittreksel uit die "Freedom Charter" kom voor:
The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;
All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.Lees die hele "Freedom Charter" hier:
http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?include=docs/misc/1955/charter.htmlBL. 14
The tenure reform programme seeks to validate and harmonise forms of land ownership that
evolved during colonialism and apartheid. It is an attempt to redress the dual system of land administration
where whites owned land as private property as opposed to communal land allocation among African people. The majority of rural African people lived and still reside on communal land that is registered as the property of the state under the erstwhile South African Development Trust, Trust land and other forms of state land. Poor records were kept by the various successive colonial and apartheid regimes and the homeland administrations where the majority of Africans lived. However there was meticulous recording of rights in the Deeds Offices for apartheid South Africa.
BL. 19
In addition to people living with insecure tenure in communal areas, there are approximately 2.8 million people living under insecure tenure on commercial farms in South Africa. There has been nocomprehensive tenure reform policy adopted since 1994.BL. 19
The demand for an integrated rural development strategy arises out of the realities of apartheid geography. Apartheid effectively defined three kinds of spaces in South Africa, each supposedly with its own political, social and economic systems: the major urban areas; the commercial farming regions and associated small towns; and, the so-called homelands. In the former homelands,
61% of households survived on less than the international poverty line of USD2/day, or about R1600 amonth for the average household of four. In the commercial farming regions, the figure was 45%and in the urban areas, 38%.5
BL. 27
The so-called ‘first’ and ‘second’ economies represent two ends of the spectrum within South Africa’s highly unequal economy, with wealth and resources concentrated at one end, and poverty and disadvantage at the other.
This inequality is a core legacy of apartheid. The question remains as to why this legacy has proven so stubborn since the transition to democracy despite the valiant attempts of the successive post-apartheid administrations since 1994?
BL. 28
The principle of willing seller-willing buyer as the basis for land reform was overwhelmingly rejected. Market-based land acquisitions entail reliance on the existing land market system which is characterised by a number of distortions and imperfections, such as restrictions on land subdivisions, the absence of an effective land tax, unequal access to capital markets and information, as well as contradictory requirements in respect of municipal zoning regulations.
The free market mechanism is also open to abuse through price inflation. The state needs to review its market driven approach with a view to establishing alternative land acquisition instruments such as expropriation, land ceilings, land tax and the state’s right of first refusal in all land transactions.BL. 31
There has been little real change in the lives of people living and working on commercial farms. The new approach to land reform must also ensure that farm dwellers derive benefits from land reform and the scale of evictions and the
ongoing violation of human rights on farms must receive urgent attention.
BL. 32
Under apartheid, white farmers enjoyed a comprehensive array of subsidies that functioned to stabilise but also to a large extent prop up the price of food. These subsidies included price stabilisation policies for basic support for marketing institutions in the form of farmers’ co-ops, the provision of cheap water and logistics infrastructure, and cheap loans through the Land Bank. In addition, the state provided social services and infrastructure of a high standard for white farmers.
This system of support for commercial farmers included far-reaching state support to control and exploit farm-workers. The state excluded farm-workers from the labour laws that gradually, from the1970s, improved conditions for most other black workers.
White farmers could call on the local police to evict farm workers at a whim, which made organisation and resistance particularly difficult. Farm workers’ access to housing, healthcare and their children’s education depended mostly on the very uncertain charity of their employers.
BL. 73
What has become evident is that the process of returning the land to claimants in communal areas has not always or altogether taken into account the historical dynamics underlying the loss of the land in the first place.
People were removed from a community for whatever reason(s) and the land part which they occupied was excised from the whole and used for purposes determined by the colonial-apartheid regime. Ideally, the people who should have claimed the land back are members of the community who lost the land excised; and those families who had been removed should have been automatically
‘returned with the land’ and financially compensated for the pain and loss. BL. 110