Date: 19/06/2003
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: Molefe: Restoration of land to Tshwaro community
SPEECH BY THE NORTH WEST PREMIER DR POPO SIMON MOLEFE ON THE OCCASION OF THE HAND-OVER CELEBRATION OF THE COMMUNAL PROPERTY ASSOCIATION CERTIFICATE TO THE TSHWARO COMMUNITY, Koppieskraal farm, 19 June 2003
Programme Director,
MEC Molewa,
The Mayor of Moses Kotane Local Municipality,
Councillors,
Our beloved Traditional leaders,
The Regional Land Claims Commissioner, Mr. Blessing Mphela
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is a great honour and a privilege for me to be afforded the opportunity to address this momentous and historic gathering today.
On that fateful day, the 27th of October 1961, unjust laws so passionately implemented by our past rulers forced the community of Tshwaro to leave the land of their ancestors.
This community was forced to live the land of their forefathers because, in the eyes of our past rulers, they were unfit to occupy it. They had to give way to white people who, at the time were, considered superior beings.
That this land belonged to the indigenous Bahurutse Boo Mokgatlhe was deemed insignificant.
That the founding fathers of this proud community found nourishment from the soil of this area, were inspired by the beauty of its fauna and flora and drank from the rivers that feed this area counted for nothing.
The 27th of October 1961 marked the beginning of an era that condemned the community of Tshwaro to a life of poverty, underdevelopment, landlessness and disease in the land of their ancestors.
This day ushered in an era that saw this proud community being stripped of its dignity. It marked the beginning of an era where the people of Tshwaro could only watch in despair as their land was used to benefit a few while they faced a daily and painful struggle to survive.
That fateful day of the 27th of October 1961, led to the creation of a legacy that would confine the Tshwaro community to the margins of the development of our society.
This was the beginning of a legacy that entrenched the stereotype that this community and indeed all African people are second-class citizens not worthy of a decent living.
Programme Director, it is this legacy that we who are gathered here today are turning our backs on.
We are here today to restore the dignity of a community that, for many years, suffered the indignity of having their land unjustly taken away from them.
We are here today to witness the rise of a new dawn for the proud community of Tshwaro. Indeed we are here today to bear witness as the sun is setting on this community's past characterized by isolation, injustice, deprivation, and landlessness.
Our gathering here today closes a chapter characterised by despair and humiliation for the community of Tshwaro. More importantly it opens a new chapter of prosperity, dignity, justice and sustainable development.
Today, the community of Tshwaro joins a growing number of communities in our country and province whose dignity is being restored on a daily basis.
The people of this area add to the growing list of communities who are beneficiaries of our land restitution programme, which seeks to return land back to our people.
The ancestors and founding fathers of the Bahurutshe Boo Makgatle are rejoicing as they see their sons and daughters return to the land of their origin.
They join all of us, who are gathered here today, in saying that: never again will this community suffer the indignity and humiliation of having their land forcefully taken away from them.
They join us is saying that forced removals were wrong, immoral and have no place in our democracy.
On behalf of the provincial government, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the community of Tshwaro for being patient while their land claim was being attended to.
I am humbled by the confidence the people of this community have placed in our government's land reform programme.
They fully understand and appreciate that our land reform programme and specifically land restitution is not driven by the illusion that is populism.
They appreciate that ours is a land reform programme that seeks to build and not to destroy. It encourages inclusion over exclusion. It prioritises consultation as opposed to unilateral action. More importantly it is guided by humility and respect for human dignity as opposed to arrogance and obstinacy.
We must also take this opportunity to applaud the manner in which the Van der Merwe family and Mr. Johannes Germishuys, the owners of this land, cooperated with government during the process aimed at settling the land claim.
Like true patriots, the Van der Merwe family and Mr Germishuys understood the legitimacy of the claim by the Tshwaro Community. We are indeed inspired by their actions.
Programme Director, today's handing over ceremony takes place during the month of June declared by the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs as the Land Month.
Consistent with the spirit of the Land Month, we must use occasions such as today's handing-over ceremony to renew our commitment to accelerated land reform in our country. We must be untiring in our effort to bring land back to our people.
We must make the point that land reform is and must form the backbone of our Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme. In this, regard we must continue to link our programme of land restitution to the broader objective of promoting sustainable development in the rural areas.
We must ensure that land reform and specifically land restitution programmes are incorporated into the Integrated Development Plans of our municipalities particularly in the rural areas.
In addition, we must seriously confront the challenge of ensuring that post-settlement assistance is offered to those communities who are beneficiaries of our land restitution programmes.
This must take the form of skills transfers, agricultural support programmes, provision of housing, water and other basic services.
I am humbled by the commitment from the Provincial government, the Department of Water Affairs and the Moses Kotane Laocal Municipality to offer post settlement assistance to the Tshwaro community.
This commitment will go a long way in allowing this community to use their land productively for the benefit of all. Even more significant is that this commitment will open opportunity for emerging farmers of this area to enter the lucrative field of commercial farming.
As the provincial government we are seized in the task of making strategic interventions to assisting emerging farmers including relocated communities.
These interventions include the process we are currently engaged in of designing, together with the private sector, a structured scheme that will reduce emerging farmers' input costs.
In addition, we are working in partnership with the Land Bank to assist emerging farmers in our province. Following our intervention, the Land Bank offered financial assistance to 56% of the total number of applications for the 2002/03-production season.
These efforts by the Land Bank resulted in an impressive 20% improvement of fallow land planted this season compared to the last season. Programme Director, that the land we are transferring to the Tshwaro Community is located near the N4 Platinum Highway offers exciting growth opportunities to farmers in this area.
This is so because the N4 Highway makes it possible for farmers in this area to sell the products to other SADC region more specifically to the Botswana market.
All this point to the fact that today's handing over ceremony brings with it major economic spin offs for this area. The productive use of this land will not only lead to the creation of much-needed jobs in this area but also will improve agricultural production in this area and facilitate skills transfer.
The benefits are brought by today's handing-over ceremony prove that our land reform programme is not only aimed at addressing past injustices but also and more importantly it seeks to alleviate poverty and underdevelopment in the rural areas.
Ours is indeed a comprehensive programme that restores the dignity of those in our country who suffered indignity at the hands of a system that sought to entrench minority privilege while promoting sustainable rural development.
I wish the Tshwaro Community well in its endeavours.
I thank You !!!
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za)
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: Molefe: Restoration of land to Tshwaro community
SPEECH BY THE NORTH WEST PREMIER DR POPO SIMON MOLEFE ON THE OCCASION OF THE HAND-OVER CELEBRATION OF THE COMMUNAL PROPERTY ASSOCIATION CERTIFICATE TO THE TSHWARO COMMUNITY, Koppieskraal farm, 19 June 2003
Programme Director,
MEC Molewa,
The Mayor of Moses Kotane Local Municipality,
Councillors,
Our beloved Traditional leaders,
The Regional Land Claims Commissioner, Mr. Blessing Mphela
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is a great honour and a privilege for me to be afforded the opportunity to address this momentous and historic gathering today.
On that fateful day, the 27th of October 1961, unjust laws so passionately implemented by our past rulers forced the community of Tshwaro to leave the land of their ancestors.
This community was forced to live the land of their forefathers because, in the eyes of our past rulers, they were unfit to occupy it. They had to give way to white people who, at the time were, considered superior beings.
That this land belonged to the indigenous Bahurutse Boo Mokgatlhe was deemed insignificant.
That the founding fathers of this proud community found nourishment from the soil of this area, were inspired by the beauty of its fauna and flora and drank from the rivers that feed this area counted for nothing.
The 27th of October 1961 marked the beginning of an era that condemned the community of Tshwaro to a life of poverty, underdevelopment, landlessness and disease in the land of their ancestors.
This day ushered in an era that saw this proud community being stripped of its dignity. It marked the beginning of an era where the people of Tshwaro could only watch in despair as their land was used to benefit a few while they faced a daily and painful struggle to survive.
That fateful day of the 27th of October 1961, led to the creation of a legacy that would confine the Tshwaro community to the margins of the development of our society.
This was the beginning of a legacy that entrenched the stereotype that this community and indeed all African people are second-class citizens not worthy of a decent living.
Programme Director, it is this legacy that we who are gathered here today are turning our backs on.
We are here today to restore the dignity of a community that, for many years, suffered the indignity of having their land unjustly taken away from them.
We are here today to witness the rise of a new dawn for the proud community of Tshwaro. Indeed we are here today to bear witness as the sun is setting on this community's past characterized by isolation, injustice, deprivation, and landlessness.
Our gathering here today closes a chapter characterised by despair and humiliation for the community of Tshwaro. More importantly it opens a new chapter of prosperity, dignity, justice and sustainable development.
Today, the community of Tshwaro joins a growing number of communities in our country and province whose dignity is being restored on a daily basis.
The people of this area add to the growing list of communities who are beneficiaries of our land restitution programme, which seeks to return land back to our people.
The ancestors and founding fathers of the Bahurutshe Boo Makgatle are rejoicing as they see their sons and daughters return to the land of their origin.
They join all of us, who are gathered here today, in saying that: never again will this community suffer the indignity and humiliation of having their land forcefully taken away from them.
They join us is saying that forced removals were wrong, immoral and have no place in our democracy.
On behalf of the provincial government, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the community of Tshwaro for being patient while their land claim was being attended to.
I am humbled by the confidence the people of this community have placed in our government's land reform programme.
They fully understand and appreciate that our land reform programme and specifically land restitution is not driven by the illusion that is populism.
They appreciate that ours is a land reform programme that seeks to build and not to destroy. It encourages inclusion over exclusion. It prioritises consultation as opposed to unilateral action. More importantly it is guided by humility and respect for human dignity as opposed to arrogance and obstinacy.
We must also take this opportunity to applaud the manner in which the Van der Merwe family and Mr. Johannes Germishuys, the owners of this land, cooperated with government during the process aimed at settling the land claim.
Like true patriots, the Van der Merwe family and Mr Germishuys understood the legitimacy of the claim by the Tshwaro Community. We are indeed inspired by their actions.
Programme Director, today's handing over ceremony takes place during the month of June declared by the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs as the Land Month.
Consistent with the spirit of the Land Month, we must use occasions such as today's handing-over ceremony to renew our commitment to accelerated land reform in our country. We must be untiring in our effort to bring land back to our people.
We must make the point that land reform is and must form the backbone of our Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme. In this, regard we must continue to link our programme of land restitution to the broader objective of promoting sustainable development in the rural areas.
We must ensure that land reform and specifically land restitution programmes are incorporated into the Integrated Development Plans of our municipalities particularly in the rural areas.
In addition, we must seriously confront the challenge of ensuring that post-settlement assistance is offered to those communities who are beneficiaries of our land restitution programmes.
This must take the form of skills transfers, agricultural support programmes, provision of housing, water and other basic services.
I am humbled by the commitment from the Provincial government, the Department of Water Affairs and the Moses Kotane Laocal Municipality to offer post settlement assistance to the Tshwaro community.
This commitment will go a long way in allowing this community to use their land productively for the benefit of all. Even more significant is that this commitment will open opportunity for emerging farmers of this area to enter the lucrative field of commercial farming.
As the provincial government we are seized in the task of making strategic interventions to assisting emerging farmers including relocated communities.
These interventions include the process we are currently engaged in of designing, together with the private sector, a structured scheme that will reduce emerging farmers' input costs.
In addition, we are working in partnership with the Land Bank to assist emerging farmers in our province. Following our intervention, the Land Bank offered financial assistance to 56% of the total number of applications for the 2002/03-production season.
These efforts by the Land Bank resulted in an impressive 20% improvement of fallow land planted this season compared to the last season. Programme Director, that the land we are transferring to the Tshwaro Community is located near the N4 Platinum Highway offers exciting growth opportunities to farmers in this area.
This is so because the N4 Highway makes it possible for farmers in this area to sell the products to other SADC region more specifically to the Botswana market.
All this point to the fact that today's handing over ceremony brings with it major economic spin offs for this area. The productive use of this land will not only lead to the creation of much-needed jobs in this area but also will improve agricultural production in this area and facilitate skills transfer.
The benefits are brought by today's handing-over ceremony prove that our land reform programme is not only aimed at addressing past injustices but also and more importantly it seeks to alleviate poverty and underdevelopment in the rural areas.
Ours is indeed a comprehensive programme that restores the dignity of those in our country who suffered indignity at the hands of a system that sought to entrench minority privilege while promoting sustainable rural development.
I wish the Tshwaro Community well in its endeavours.
I thank You !!!
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za)
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