Johannesburg - Political parties have used the Human Rights Day commemoration to address the hot topic of land redistribution.
EFF leader Julius Malema said there are no human rights without land and reiterated his party’s stance on the land issue.
He said the conversation of land was an African question not just that of South Africa. He was speaking at the EFF’s Human Rights Day rally in Mpumalanga.
“The conversation of land is an African conversation. South Africa will take back its land, Zambia must take back its land and Zimababwe must continue with holding its land,” said Malema.
The party has taken credit for the bringing the land issue back into the country’s interest.
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The land debate has been a hot topic of late after the EFF’s motion to expropriate land without compensation was voted on by the majority of parties in Parliament.
Azania✊ #EFFHumanRightsDayRally pic.twitter.com/NJcGN77mI3
— #RegisterToVoteEFF (@EFFSouthAfrica) March 21, 2018
The view. #EFFHumanRightsDayRally pic.twitter.com/0KuUYg9NOm
— #RegisterToVoteEFF (@EFFSouthAfrica) March 21, 2018
Parliament has now appointed a Constitutional Review Committee that will start receiving oral and written submissions from the public on whether section 25 of the Constitution should be amended to allow the state to expropriate land without compensation.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa also addressed the land issue at his party’s Human Rights Day event.
#HumanRightsDay. Thank u #UDMGauteng. See u on strat session on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/XBdtMwdDbr
— Bantu Holomisa (@BantuHolomisa) March 21, 2018
He called for sober thoughts as wide-ranging consultations take place across the country on the issue of amending the constitution.
“The land issue should also not be used as a populist scaring tactic (by either the left, or the right) to drive the wedge deeper between the formerly oppressed and the formerly advantaged. South Africans, of all persuasions, must understand and admit (whether they like it or not) that the land issue must be addressed once and for all, and that it must happen soon, because the country teeters on the precipice of open revolt,” said Holomisa.