Justice Piitso
The year 1510 was a turning point in the history of the heroic struggle of the people of our country against imperialism and colonial conquest and dispossession. A historic year which saw the first battle between the indigenous people of our country and the colonial settlers at the Cape Colony.
The Goringhaiqua tribe of the Khoi San was involved in a skirmish with a contingent of a Portuguese voyage, under the leadership of Captain D’Almmeida. The Goringhaiqua tribe defeated the Portuguese intruders who wanted to steal their livestock, in order to replenish their food stock during the long journey of discovery to the East Indies.
The battle at the banks of the Liesbeek River, between the indigenous people of our country and the colonial settlers, is one of the living testimonies, of how our forefathers fought heroic battles, to defend our motherland against the acrimonious colonial conquest and dispossession. Millions of our people sacrificed their lives for the freedom and dignity of future generations.
The heroic men and women of our country did not defend our motherland against imperialism and colonialism in order to compensate those who have confiscated our land through horrible acts of atrocities and manslaughter. Surely, our forefathers and many of our generation did not lead the struggle for the liberation of our country to compensate those who have stolen our land.
During the year 1876, Johannes Dinkwanyane, the younger half-brother of King Sekhukhune, wrote the following letter to the landlord of Lydenburg expressing his dismay about the dispossession of land by white settlers,
“To the office, to all the people, I will address you Boers, you men who know God; do you think there is a God who will punish lying, theft and deceit? I ask you now for the truth, I pray for the truth because I also speak my whole truth. I say: the land belongs to us, this is my truth, and even if you become angry I will nonetheless stand by it.
See what other people, blacks, have settled around here, but they are not so clever as to sell the land because they are ignorant, but you were all too clever. Your cleverness has turned to theft. When I say your cleverness has turned to theft, I say it in relation to the land, because you came to this country, you knew God word but ate everything up and said nothing to anybody, only flogged people.
Your theft has now come into the open. Other men came here who were not of your kind who taught the people about this. And I state and I mean; those who have bought land let them take their money back. Let these words be read before all the people so that they can hear the same. I am Johannes the younger son of Sekwati.”
Our important task is to ensure that in the long journey of our struggle to achieve the objectives of our national democratic revolution, we are not tempted to whitewash monopoly capital at the peril of the wishes and the aspirations of the millions of the previously disadvantaged people of our country, the black people in general and the Africans in particular.
This is an important question which we have to appreciate during this complex period of our transition for the development of human society. The struggle for the achievement of an egalitarian society is the task of all humanity.
Our struggle during this important period of our transition for the development of human society is about building a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous world. This is the context of the strategic objectives of our national democratic revolution to achieve the noble cause of our historic mission to build the ideal future South African society.
In the peculiar conditions, of the South African socio-economic realities, the strategy and tactics of our national liberation movement has always declared the system of the racist Apartheid white minority regime as the enemy of our people and not the white citizens of our country, even if they became the benefactors of the system as a result of the colour of their skin.
The notion of ‘our people’ is surely about the achievement of the objectives of our revolution which is about the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society. It is about the achievement of the wishes and the aspirations of the motive forces of our revolution who are the black people in general and the African people in particular.
In the whole of the African continent there are only four countries which allow private ownership of land and in the whole of the European Union, all the land is in the ownership of the state. What is it that impedes the realisation of our objectives?
We have to state it categorically that it was not what our forefathers sought to achieve during the first battle against the colonial settlers at the banks of the Liesbeeck River and many other battles throughout the three and half centuries of colonial oppression and exploitation. It is, therefore, a complete distortion of our revolutionary theory to elevate the question of the compensation to those who stole our land to be the strategic epicentre of our revolution.
My understanding is that we have to appreciate the resolution of our 54th elective national conference to expropriate land without compensation as a tactical manoeuvre to accelerate the momentum of our revolutionary programme for radical economic transformation. Instead of throwing insinuations of mockery and false view that this important breakthrough, is a complete distortion of the true culture and traditions our movement represents, the apotheosis of our time, I mean our erstwhile theoreticians, must focus more on guiding our society on how best to implement this historic resolution in the interest of the people of our country.
