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ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe. Picture: Sizwe Ndingane
Dropping the land reform question from the government's agenda would be betraying the ANC's history, the party's general secretary Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.
Transformation should be an ongoing topic as it was of historic importance to the liberation movement, he said in Johannesburg at the launch of a book on the ANC's centenary, “Unity in Diversity: 100 Years of ANC Leadership”.
“The dialogue must continue. It is happening and is catching fire every day.”
The issue should not only be entertained by “a monopoly of sections of society”.
Mantashe said the party's year-long centenary celebrations helped South Africans to “re-engage” in dialogue.
He said Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder was trying to rewrite history by suggesting in Parliament last week that black “Bantu-speaking” people had no historical claim to 40 percent of the country.
Mantashe said the first war of resistance was fought in 1659 by the Koi and the San people.
“He (Mulder) believes the genocide that followed that war left no Koi and San people... He believes there were no people left.”
Mantashe emphasised the importance of the ANC centenary in educating South Africans, saying “a nation that doesn't know its history is like a tree that doesn't blossom”.
He hailed former ANC leaders for instilling the importance of education in black people through establishing education institutions.
“They played a role of providing Africans with intellectual capacity. I can see and feel it in the history of the ANC.”
He urged people to buy the book, costing R250 a copy, as it was an important “historical tool”. ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa handed the first copy to former president Nelson Mandela last month. - Sapa
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piet, wrote
Land reform are neccesary, so whether some of us want it to be a total failure or not.Theres excellent farmers within the ranks of previous disadvantage groups, people who work this land for generations, but as servants. Give them access to land, aswell as trainning on how run the land as a bussines, and they will become commercial farmers, and there wont be a issue of food security who is in danger.
jerry, wrote
The san and Khoi peoplles were never settlers, they roiamed the land as the seasons and food availability dictated. They were part of the land, the land was not part of them. So tell me and all others Mr Mashante, just how far back in time do you want to go? 100 years? 200 years?. 1000 years? Both the european and african migrant tribes decimated and virtually killed off the Khoi and San peoplesnwho now live in reserves in Namibia. The land belongs to those who SETTLED it and made permanent homes there, not to someone who says 'African belongs to africans' as who are afroicans? 100,000 years ago WE ALL WERE so we all have a claim to live here, Black, white, Yellow and sky blue pink. The Past is gone, live for now and the future for all our sakes or follow Zimbabawe to poverty and total ruin (except of course the ruling Party)
Bas, wrote
The trouble with selective reasoning (especially when using History) is that it tends to backfire. Gwede should also know that the tribes of his ancestors were complicit in virtually wiping out the San and Khoi people. All you have to do is look at the prevalence of bushman paintings spread throughout SA. If you therefore have to do any form of land restitution, perhaps then both sides first need to give land back to the San and the Khoi people.
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