If the ANC wanted to give land to the people of Mkhondo, they would have
Note to Editors: the following remarks were delivered by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Mmusi Maimane, at a public meeting in Mkhondo, Mpumalanga, today.
My fellow South Africans, people of Mkhondo.
I have just come from an engagement with a large number of traditional leaders from various communities in this region. During this meeting we discussed the ongoing and unresolved issues around land, as well as the lack of recognition of many of these leaders as chiefs on their own land.
What became very clear during this meeting is that the ANC government does not have the will to resolve the issue of land in this area. The land claims registered here 20 years ago in 1998 are no nearer to being resolved than they were back then.
This is partly because it is a complex land issue, dating back to when the border between SA and Swaziland was drawn up. But many land claims in our country are complex – we cannot allow this to deter us in our efforts to return the land to the people with a rightful claim. But the main reason why this has dragged on for so many years is because it is not in the ANC’s interest to empower the Swazi people living on these lands with ownership.