MEMORUNDUM OF DEMANDS BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS ON LAND OWNED BY THE RUPERTS
Wednesday , 06 April 2022
The 6th of April marks a significant day in the history of South Africa's colonialization and dispossession of the land and entire wealth. South Africa's colonialization and total land dispossession begun on the 6th of April when a private corporation, the Dutch East Indian Company, established a colonial settlement in the Southernmost part of the African continent, the Cape.
The 6th of April is therefore 'Land Day' because it is on the day when settlers begun a brutal process of colonial dispossession and pillaging of South Africa's resources. The intergenerational suffering, poverty, hunger, and starvation that defines all indigenous African people is a direct consequence of the colonial settlement that begun on the 6th of April 1652.
The dominance of white people in the ownership and control of wealth is a direct consequence of the colonial settlement which essentially refused and continues to refuse to treat the indigenous African populations as equal human beings. White wealth in South Africa and many party of the African continent squarely rests on colonial settlements and land dispossession, which has still not be reversed.
Today, we stand on these stolen grounds, the lands that were violently and forcefully taken from the populations of indigenous Africans who inhabited them since the dawn on time. Essentially, no other peoples are known to have ever lived on these lands except the indigenous African people whose descendants continue to constitute a large majority of the modem African population.
Yet, in 1652, in the name of white supremacy, colonial settlers who are exclusively white people, begun the violent, inhuman, and brutal conquest of these indigenous populations with the sole purpose of amassing their natural resources, In the process, the colonial settlers employed mass murder tactics of massacres, genocide, assassinations, torture, gang rape, slavery, and apartheid to keep their status as conquerors,
To this day, the billions and massive wealth they own is a direct inheritance of the sustained land dispossession imposed on indigenous African populations, The Rupert family, together with the Oppenheimer family, are direct descendants and successors of Dutch East Indian Company, the first gang and cash-in-transit criminal company to unleash land dispossession in the Cape. The Ruperts are the face and first citizens of the larger racist white supremacist project of black exploitation and dispossession. To this day, this very property, like many properties around the continent, is surrounded by massive populations of black people who live in squalor,
The Ruperts, like all white people in South Africa, are direct beneficiaries of colonial settlement and land dispossession that begun on the 6th of April 1652, and their wealth rests on the white supremacist ideology they have embraced as part of the colonial and dispossession project. As a result, the Ruperts have direct or indirect control of almost all spheres of South Africa's economy, Through their holding company of REMGRO, the Ruperts own and control the following key economic resources;
- Vast tracts of land in the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape;
- Direct control of wildlife including the Kruger National Park;
- Banks which include FNB, RMB, WESBANK, GRINDROD, and DISCOVERY BANK;
- INSURANCE COMPANIES such as DISCOVERY, MOMENTUM, OUTSURANCE;
- HEALTHCARE in the form of MEDICLINC;
- PETROLEUM INDUSTRY SUCH AS TOTAL SOUTH AFRICA;
- MEDIA through ownership of e-Media (e-Tv and eNCA) and OpenHD;
- Cigarettes trading through the British American Tobacco (BAT);
- ALCOHOL industry through DISTELL which produces Savanah. Hunters Dry, Amarula and many other alcohol brands. They also own R&R Wines and many other wining brands:
- Food items such RAINBOW CHICKEN, SELATI SUGER, ROOIBOS and Spreads such as RAMA, STORK
- Luxury goods through REINET which owns Mont Blanc and Port Terminals in RICHARDS BAY TERMINAL through GRINDOD; and
- Independent Power Producers that supply ESKOM WITH ELECTRICITY.
These are just some of the assets the Ruperts own and control and there is no doubt that this wealth rests on the colonial settlement and land dispossession that begun on the 6. of April 1652. The inhumanity with which the wealth of the Ruperts is sustained rests on continued landlessness of the African indigenous populations, and depends on their continued exploitation.
The EFF therefore speaks on behalf of all generations of the dispossessed African indigenous populations and their descendants. We are the children of the people who originally own the wealth of the Ruperts and the people whose land the Ruperts have stolen and kept through violence for over 300 years.
Moreover, the EFF speaks for farm workers who labour in the farms, but get paid in alcohol. The EFF speaks for the millions of families who live in spaceless spaces called 'townships' for lack of land and human settlement. The EFF speaks for rural African populations forced into unproductive small holds in rural South Africa without any prospects of being commercial farmers.
Furthermore, the EFF speaks on behalf of rural populations whose cattle is denied grazing lands by the colonial lords like Rupert and his descendants of the Great Trek gang. The EFF speaks on behalf of all Africans who need land for hospitals, schools, sports, art, and business.
On this day, the 6. of April, marks the anniversary of the arrival of the Dutch East Indian Company on our land, and was led by the land thieve and gangster Jan Van Riebeek. The EFF demands equitable distribution of all South Africa's land to African people, Stellenbosch, is a conglomerate of land thieves and properties belong to Rupert, the richest land thief of all time.
As such, the EFF calIs on the Ruperts to release African people's land which they attained through genocide and massacres and sustained it through the colonial and apartheid crimes against humanity, Moreover, the EFF is making the following demands;
- An immediate disclosure of the amount of property own. by Johann Rupert and how it was acquired historically;
- The immediate equitable redistribution of all land in private holdings without compensation, particularly that which is currently under the ownership of Johann Rupert and all his entities;
- An independently audited report of the tax records of Johann Rupert, public disclosure thereof and a public disclosure of all off-shore accounts and foreign economic interests of Johann Rupert, which draw financial basis from South African land, products or labour;
- A disclosure of the living, working and remuneration conditions of farm-workers on the properties of Johann Rupert;
- A disclosure of the Corporate Social Investments made by Johann Rupert personally, and his entities in the South African communities, particularly those surrounding his properties
Lastly, the EFF calls on the Rupert's to respond to these demands in the next 14 days.
Issued by the EFF, 6 April 2022
