President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasised that the deep historical wounds caused by the racist apartheid-era Natives Land Act are the reason the South African democratic government “will never allow forced removals again”.
President Ramaphosa was replying to the debate of the State of the Nation (SONA) address held on Tuesday and Wednesday in which many speakers based their remarks on the land question.
In January this year, President Ramaphosa promulgated the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 which states that property may not be expropriated arbitrarily or for a purpose other than a public purpose or in the public interest and subject to just and equitable compensation.
“A number of the speakers during this debate spoke about the land question, which I have in the past said was the original sin that was committed against the people of our country.
“Describing the Natives Land Act of 1913, Solomon T Plaatje described the Natives Land Act of 1913 as ‘an insidious law that rendered black South Africans pariahs in the land of their birth’. It is this Natives Land Act that plunged millions of people into poverty and deprivation, whose impact endures to this day,” the President said in reply to the debate on Thursday.
Some 57 years ago in Cape Town, the Apartheid government perpetrated what President Ramaphosa described as one of the “most painful chapters in the history of this country”.
At the time, the Apartheid government demolished District Six to give way for a “whites-only suburb” with some 60 000 people forcibly removed from their homes as a result.
“Over the course of two decades, the apartheid regime forcibly removed more than 3.5 million people in District Six, Sophiatown, Marabastad, Cato Manor, Kroonstad, Nelspruit and many other places across the country. It was one of the largest mass removals of people in modern history.
“There are some in this House today who have memories of their families being forcibly removed from their land. There are millions more across the country who still experience the effects of this monstrous crime.
“The people of this country know the pain of forced removals. That is why we will never allow forced removals again,” he explained.
President Ramaphosa emphasised that the tragic forced removals of the Apartheid government are part of the reason why the Constitution now:
• prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of property; and
• requires just and equitable compensation be paid in the event of expropriation for a public purpose or in the public interest
“Our experience of forced removals also explains the Constitutional requirement that the state must take reasonable measures, within its available resources, to foster conditions which enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis.
“Today, District Six rings with the sounds of families who have been returned to the land that was taken from them. Yet, like the transformation of our society, the process of restitution is not complete. There is still much that needs to be done to heal the divisions of the past,” he said.
The President reflected on the continuous, “long and hard” road to building a nation free from the shackles of institutionalised racism and “united in its diversity”.
“We are firmly committed to the fundamental principle that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
“We are firmly committed to a society that is non-racial and non-sexist. We want to live together in peace, harmony and equality. We want to see our country succeed and grow. We must not allow others to define us or to divide us,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
