COSATU cautions against war talk from DA
COSATU is concerned about the statement of the DA in relation to land reform. The DA has always opposed land reformed, as a direct result of their focus on maintaining the apartheid generational advantage of white farmers. The DA maintains their racist stance of trying to suggest that black farmers are incompetent, when the issue of land reform is raised. The DA is the party of the farmers as demonstrated during the WC strikes in 2011.
This anti-worker and anti-land reform attitude of the DA will lead to the violence we saw on farms reigniting, with effects across the country. It is no surprise seeing the DA and Afri-Forum being on the same side in opposing the land reform and farmers threatening to undermine food security and jobs on the farms. Those farmers who do not see themselves as part of the new South Africa are welcome to leave, as there are enough farmers like Solms Delta, with whom we can develop the Agricultural sector.
The example of Solms Delta shows that where fair land reform and real partnerships are promoted, the productivity and social integration on the farms are promoted and enhanced. The productivity of the farm has also increased, with increased profits that are more equally shared amongst the farmers and farm workers.
This model has seen the conditions of farm workers improved to such an extent that their children now have similar opportunities as the farmer's children in schools and community. The farm workers are given real partnerships not the patronising equity schemes that the DA has been promoting in the W Cape, which leaves white farmers in effective sole control of the operations.
The DA attitude reveals their opposition to undoing the legacy of apartheid and the 1913 Land Act. The wars of dispossession of the land before 1913 will be reopened if we do not find a negotiated solution to this vexing question confronting our society.
The DA's attempt to hide behind the National Development Plan as a manner to oppose land reform is exposed by their historical defence of white land ownership. The ANC, as the governing party, has proposed a radical land reform process that is the only way to avoid an all out war, as the indigenous people grow tired of their continued impoverishment on the farms.
We need to use this opportunity to negotiate a new deal on farms, which promotes greater equality and social justice. The absences of an agricultural solution that takes account of all people will see the historical hostility of apartheid on farms explode into open conflict. COSATU calls on Government to continue with the equitable land reform programme
Statement issued by Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, June 25 2014
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