Date: 26/08/2006
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: Molewa: Bakwena Ba Mogopa Snymansdrift Farm Handover Celebration
Keynote address by North West Premier Mme Edna Molewa at the Bakwena Ba Mogopa Snymansdrift Farm handover celebration, Bethanie Community Hall, Madibeng Local Municipality
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
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: Molewa: Bakwena Ba Mogopa Snymansdrift Farm Handover Celebration
Keynote address by North West Premier Mme Edna Molewa at the Bakwena Ba Mogopa Snymansdrift Farm handover celebration, Bethanie Community Hall, Madibeng Local Municipality
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
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