South Africa’s Historical Land Issue

 

 

South Africa’s Historical Land Issue

(Forced Removals and Relocations)

 

“Everybody has died. My man has gone and died, as have my daughters. They took my land away. The Lord has also gone, yes, I suppose He has also gone.”

-Maria Zotwana-

Elukhanyweni

 

Outright Abuse:

Removal and relocation of people in Africa was and still is a process so destructive of people and communities that it challenges us ALL to action. The ABUSE continues to take place on an immense scale and great suffering was and is still being caused. This affects the lives of each one of us in some way.

 

Psalm 24:

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who dwell therein. For it was He who founded it upon the seas and planted it firm upon the waters beneath.”

 

Total numbers removed or under threat of removal in South Africa between 1960 and 1982 (22 years).

Four Provinces existed then:

Province	Removed	Threat
Cape: Eastern Western	401000 417000	477000 36000
Orange Free State	574000	Not Available
Natal	745500	622000
Transvaal	1295400	605500
	3372900	1740500

 

Organisations:

1.    The Black Sash

2.    The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference

3.    The South African Council of Churches

 

Blacks have been dispossessed amidst economic growth throughout South Africa’s history. Human greed is a powerful motivating factor, and so money and property was and still is being increasingly accumulated in fewer and fewer hands. Mines, industries, and farms, as well as Corporations and Banks, amongst other Enterprises, continue to seek higher and higher profits for themselves. Prior removals were as a direct consequence.

 

White Land ownership was increased by the 1913 Land Act, which actually prevented Black People from acquiring new land. In addition, the Constitution of South Africa, 1983, was approved by parliament and White referendum only. Africans were excluded. The Bantustan policy prevented power-sharing – Africans had ’political rights’ in their own states only. 86 percent of South Africa was set aside for White occupation. Afrikaner nationalism as an ideology took over the injustices of racism, economic and political injustice, inherited from the British colonial period.

 

Separate land areas for different race groups has its roots in the 19^th century. The 1846/7 Natal Commission for Locating the Natives ensured this. The Boer Republics followed suit. In 1885, the policy was extended to Indians in Transvaal when they were confined to certain town districts only and in 1891 Indians were totally excluded from Orange Free State.

 

In 1962 control passed from the Department of Coloured Affairs to Department of Community Development. 100 of every 500 Coloured and 160 out of every 500 Indian families. District Six was completely obliterated, thanks to the Group Areas Act.

 

Khoikhoi (Hottentots) and San (Bushmen) encountered the Dutch East Indies Company from 1652. They (Khoisan) were forced to work for the Whites.

 

Bantustans came into existence as a consequence of the seizure of African land. They were ‘reserved’ for Africans by the 1913 Land Act so that migrant wages could be low, supplemented by some agricultural production. They became a tool for controlling the rate of urbanisation in “white’ South Africa and for moving unemployment away from ‘white’ farm and industrial areas. The Bantustans were used to divide and defuse African nationalism and resistance.

 

Bantustans:

1.    KwaZulu

2.    Qwa-Qwa

3.    Bophuthatswana

4.    Lebowa

5.    Transkei

6.    Venda

7.    Ciskei

8.    Gazankulu

9.    Kangwane

10. KwaNdebele

 

In 1960, 40 percent of Africans lived in Bantustans. By 1980, 53 percent lived in Bantustans as a result of rel0ocation. Who supported the Bantustan rulers and bureaucracy??? Pretoria-controlled Bantustan leaders. They secured political control of the rural population. To complete the concept of “total strategy”, a comprehensive plan to utilise all means available to the South African government, Bantustan police and armies were trained by SAP and SADF. A mass of repressive legislation in response to “terrorists” propaganded that South Africa was in “Total War”.

 

Battalions formed:

1.    121 Battalion (Zulu)

2.    Battalion 111 (Swazi)

3.    Battalion 113 (Shangaan)

4.    Battalion 112 (Venda)

5.    Battalion 21 (Inter-Ethnic)

 

Police forces and armies were also established in:

1.    Bophuthatswana

2.    Venda

3.    Transkei

4.    Ciskei

 

In 1976, Transkei became independent. This changed South Africa’s borders, in the eyes of South African law. The independence of Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei further complicated “Border Issues”.

 

Micah 2:2

“They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.”

 

Isiah 5:20:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight.”

 

The full effects and repercussions of forced or induced removals are being seen now and will be seen for years to come. The devastation caused within people through wrecking the established wisdom of a community has taken generations to manifest itself fully and will take even longer to heal.

 

Pope John Paul II

“Institutions and laws unjustly ignore the inviolable rights of the family and of the human person; and society, far from putting itself at the service of the family, attacks it violently in its values and fundamental requirements.”

 

If we remain silent, we betray our responsibility to GOD and His People. South Africans, Africans, and the Entire Human Family, whatever injures one sector of Humanity injures Humankind as a whole. However, or whatever your concept of creation is, we recognise that GOD has created the world and that GOD sustains it. GOD is the true owner of the earth and its resources.