ANC Today --------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 3, No. 24, 20-26 June 2003 --------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK: * Letter from the President: The land shall belong to those who work it * Schools: Poor to benefit from free schooling action plan * Botswana Raid: Healing ceremony remembers struggle martyrs --------------------------------------------------------------------- LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT The land shall belong to those who work it On the 19th of June 1913, the government of the Union of South Africa passed the infamous Native Land Act. This gave legislative effect to a process of land seizure by the white settlers that has been going on since Jan van Riebeeck set foot on the shores of the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Yesterday was 90 years since the adoption of this law that has brought untold suffering to generations of black people. Through this and other racist laws, millions of our people were uprooted from their land, their homes bulldozed and their dignity destroyed. The Department of Land Affairs has declared this month as ' Land Month', which is dedicated to the achievements that we have made so far, in reversing racial land dispossessions and the measures that we have taken to ameliorate the pain, grief, trauma and despair occasioned by years of forced removals. The history of land dispossession in our country is inseparable from the brutal system of colonialism and apartheid. Three years before the passing of the Land Act, in 1910, Britain had formed a whites-only government that combined the whites-only republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State, as well as the Natal and Cape colonies. The 1910 formation of the Union of South Africa represented the political consolidation of the military defeat of the African kingdoms, and the legalisation of white minority rule by British imperialism. Thus, the new Union government was a government by white people, for white people. Not even some pretence was made that the political and other rights of the black majority would be respected. The next important issue with regard to the consolidation of the military victory of the settlers was the land question. Some of the main objectives of the colonisation of our country, which followed the military conquests, were the destruction of the indigenous kingdoms, the socio-political domination of black people and land dispossession. In 1912, between the formation of the Union and the passage of the Land Act, and responding to both, representatives of the African people formed the ANC, to fight for the freedom of the black people and reverse the negative consequences of the colonialism and apartheid pursued by successive white regimes. Interestingly, the first Secretary General of the ANC, Sol Plaatjie, wrote a highly informative book on the impact of the 1913 Land Act on the rural African masses, graphically describing the resultant further impoverishment and subjugation of the African people. Although many black people had already lost their land in the wars of dispossessions by the time the Union was formed in 1910, the insatiable avarice of the resident colonialists saw them seeking new ways of grabbing more and more land that was still in the hands of black people. Thus the Land Act of 1913 was followed by other laws, which sought to reserve most of the land in South Africa for exclusive ownership and use by the white minority. These include the Development and Land Act of 1936 as well as a plethora of laws that denied black people the right to own land and property in most of South Africa. Later, the Group Areas Act and other laws further restricted the possibility of blacks to own land in their country and denied them freedom of movement. It is estimated that 3,5 million people were forcibly removed in the post World War II period in a further drive in the process of land dispossession. Most of the dispossessed were dumped in the Bantustans, the labour reservoirs originally called native reserves. Constituting at least 80% of the population, the Africans ended up occupying at best 13% of their motherland. The consequences of the process of land dispossession were extremely pernicious, inhumane, and had long-term negative effects on the black people, whose legacy is central to our transformation process today. Among other things, the loss of land led to widespread homelessness, absence of security of tenure, overcrowding, unstable families, rural-urban migration, the degradation of the soil, and severe limitations on the possibility of Africans to pursue meaningful agricultural and agro-industrial activities. The denial of Africans to own land in urban areas, through the infamous Groups Areas Act and other laws, coupled with the migratory labour system, led to family break-downs, dysfunctional families and the spread of slums. Because Africans were regarded as temporary migrants, no essential services were provided for them in their residential areas in the designated white areas, and no property rights were accorded to them. This was because it was decreed that their permanent homes were in the Bantustans. However, the masses of our people did not meekly submit to these inhuman practices. Under the leadership of their organisation, the ANC, they mounted many heroic struggles to resist forced removals and the impositions of the various laws that sought to make blacks foreigners in their own country. The more repressive laws the white minority governments passed and enforced, the more resistance they encountered. In the process, many among the oppressed majority joined the ranks of the liberation movement to fight for their total liberation. Individual communities also fought courageous struggles to retain their lands. In these areas, in the end the brutal force used by the white minority regime resulted in the defeat of the people. Yet, this was a temporary victory by the colonial and apartheid forces. They won the battles, but would ultimately lose the war. In 1994 our people who had placed their confidence in the ANC from its foundation, crowned their heroic struggles by achieving an overwhelming victory in the elections that brought to an end centuries of colonialism and apartheid, beginning a new era of transformation and the undoing of the damage caused by the racist policies of the past. Accordingly, given the many cruel consequences of the colonial and apartheid land policies, one of the main challenges that has faced the democratic government since our freedom in 1994, was and remains the urgent redress of this centuries-old legacy of land dispossession. While the entirety of government is part of this process of correcting the wrongs of the past, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs occupies the front trenches in this struggle. Understanding the importance of the land question to many of our people, the democratic government passed the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994. This law offered a legal framework to address and resolve land claims through negotiations. In this context, we appointed a Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, which has been tasked with the land restitution programme of government. Through this law we also created the Land Claims Commission, which facilitates and negotiates the settlement of claims and the Land Claims Court, which adjudicates over claims that require legal intervention. Today, through the restitution, redistribution and land tenure reform programme, more than 1,3 million hectares have been transferred to the formerly dispossessed, including the more than 590 000 hectares transferred under the land restitution programme. While returning people to their ancestral lands and ensuring access to land by new individual and cooperative farmers are important, of central relevance is the development process that is part of this crucial process. This is done through the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme, which has empowered many across the country. Beneficiaries of this programme, who include farm workers, can access grants of between R20 000 to R100 000, to assist them as they use the land for productive purposes. The other important process, which is relevant to the land question, is the access of black people to their property, land tenure and housing rights, especially those in the urban areas and on commercial farms. Since 1994, government has built more than a million houses for the poor, mainly black, and handed over to the people, the houses that they rented for many years, but were denied the right to own them, because it was said that these properties were in 'white South Africa'. The new owners of both new and old houses also own the land on which these houses stand. Many others have been given tenure rights in places in which they were born and had worked for all their lives. The activities carried out during this month of June, which is both the Land Month and Youth Month, emphasise that we have a responsibility to assist the process of the transformation of our country by engaging in programmes that will assist our people who have been given their land back, to use their land productively. Land acquisition and its productive use are critical to the success we must achieve, to push back the frontiers of poverty. There are many ideas, programmes and projects that would, in the context of Vuk'uzenzele and Letsema, help these masses of our people, to use their land to enjoy a better life. It is important that those among us who have the technical expertise should find ways of assisting in this process. In this regard, we must express our sincere appreciation to the white farmers and farmers' organisations that have readily extended a helping hand to the new black farmers. We also urge the financial institutions to give these people the possibility to carry out profitable farming activities by ensuring that they have access to the much-needed finance. The people working at Agriculture and Land Affairs, are our leading troops in the struggle to use land to fight unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment, and redress past wrongs. At the same time, we all have a duty to lend a hand and enter into a people's contract for a better tomorrow. We should not, and will not waver in our resolve to address the land question. Ninety years after the passage of the 1913 Land Act, we are on the way towards meeting the demand contained in the Freedom Charter, that the land shall belong to those who work it. Thabo Mbeki --------------------------------------------------------------------- SCHOOLS Poor to benefit from free schooling action plan An action plan to improve access to schooling for the poor, which was released by the Department of Education this week, is another important step in the progressive roll-out of free education. The plan follows an extensive research and public consultation process around the 'Review of the Financing, Resourcing and Costs of Education in Public Schools' report released in March. It is a multi-pronged strategy which aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of schooling, while lowering the costs for particularly the poorest of learners. The action plan will start to be phased in during the next financial year starting with the poorest 20 percent of learners. By the time it is fully implemented, it is expected that at least 60 percent of learners will have access to a free quality basic education funded by the government. Cost of schooling By establishing a national 'basic minimum package' which increases government's contribution to the funding of the poorest fifth of learners in the country by more than double in some cases, the plan will remove the need for most of the affected schools to charge school fees. While government does not believe a complete school fee ban is necessary in poor schools benefiting from better public funding levels, it will strongly discourage or limit the charging of school fees. Communities with good reasons for charging fees, and with a good system of exemptions in place, will retain the right to charge fees. Schools benefiting from the improved funding will however have to apply to the department to charge school fees. Work will be done to ensure that parents are empowered to be able to distinguish between reasonable and excessive school fees. Government also aims to close certain loopholes in exemption procedures to ensure that all those who cannot afford to pay school fees are duly exempted from doing so. Amendments will also be made to accommodate parents with more than one learner at school at a time, and to take account of the cost of school uniforms and other 'hidden fees'. Households which receive social grants on the basis of poverty will get automatic exemption from the payment of school fees. Amendments to the exemption procedures will explain exactly how these automatic exemptions are to be defined. The plan aims to improve awareness among poor parents of the right to fee exemptions. The plan also envisages a school uniform policy, which will be adopted by 2004 at the latest, to ensure that uniforms make access to schools easier, not more difficult, for disadvantaged learners. It will aim to reduce the costs of school uniforms and increase parent participation in the determination of the school uniform. Schools will be prohibited from taking any action against, or marginalising, a learner who doesn't comply with the school uniform because of economic hardship. Teachers The plan is not limited to the issue of public funding of learners and school fees. It also place emphasis on ensuring that educators are better able to offer quality education. Government will continue to roll out training programmes to help educators in schools implement the new curriculum and upgrade their general skills and knowledge. To ensure teachers are able to devote their time to teaching and class preparation, and not have to deal with administrative tasks, government will finalise a policy by no later than 2004 on the provision of better administrative and other support in schools. Work will also be done to increase personnel expenditure while improving productivity. Incentives will also be provided to educators to reward excellence, to encourage specialisation in areas like maths and science, and to encourage teachers to work in marginalised rural areas or urban areas considered difficult. Because studies have shown that improving the management of schools increases the quality of schooling, emphasis will be placed on management training, remuneration and support for managers, and building up a corps of committed and capable education managers and principals. Targeting poverty The plan also looks at other ways of targeting poverty through the education system. The primary schools nutrition programme, which has been a central part of the ANC's efforts to alleviate poverty since 1994, will be transferred to the education department from the department of health next year. During this time, we will realise our target of providing a nutritious meal to at least one-fifth of all learners every school day. These meals will be targeted at the poorest schools and learners in grades R to 7. Mechanisms will be set up to identify poor learners in non-targeted schools. Government believes that no poor learner should be further than one hour away from the closest school offering the grades they must attend. Therefore, during 2004 the department will, together with the transport department, conduct an assessment of current initiatives and make recommendations to improve transport options for learners in all provinces. All of this work will take place alongside efforts to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation capacity of the department. This is to ensure that at all levels of the public education system, relevant, accurate and up-to-date information is available on the functioning of the system. This will contribute significantly to improved performance, efficiency and cost-reduction. The department will establish an Education Complaints Office, with a toll-free number, to receive queries or complaints from parents or others "regarding the rights of learners to a free basic schooling that is of good quality". MORE INFORMATION: 'Improving access to free and quality basic education for all', June 2003 http://education.pwv.gov.za/what's_new/Plan of Action.pdf ---------------------- ----------------------------------------------- BOTSWANA RAID Healing ceremony remembers struggle martyrs The Botswana capital of Gaborone was a hive of activity on Saturday, 14 June, as scores of South Africans, most of them former exiles who had lived in Botswana, descended on the city to attend Ditebogo, a thanksgiving event. The event was organized to commemorate the lives of all South Africans who had died in Botswana in the course of the struggle for liberation, and with specific emphasis on that fateful night of 14 June 1985, when twelve people, including citizens of Botswana, lost their lives in a cross-border raid by units of the apartheid South African Defence Force. This was part of the apartheid regime's notorious so-called pre-emptive strikes against those opposed to the regime. Ditebogo was a joint initiative of a group of ANC members who had been based in Botswana, and the Freedom Park Trust, as an opportunity to express gratitude (ditebogo) to the people of Botswana for the sacrifices they made by hosting South Africans and, in the process, exposing themselves to military raids by the Southern African bully boys of the time, the South African army. The intention was also to express gratitude for the lives that were lost. The ceremony was the first of a series of similar events of cleansing, healing and symbolic reparation ceremonies planned for all countries in Southern Africa where South Africans and citizens of the host countries died in the course of the liberation struggle. These ceremonies will acknowledge the seven areas of conflict in South Africa's past, including genocide, slavery, the wars of resistance, the Anglo-Boer wars, the first and second world wars and the struggle for liberation, and will culminate on 16 December in a national ceremony at the Freedom Park site at Salvokop in Pretoria. This is in line with the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Chairperson of the Freedom Park Trust, Dr Wally Serote had this to say: "Freedom Park will become a permanent reminder for us now and for future generations that South Africans did take a step forward to put closure to the past without forgetting it. By doing so we give ourselves a chance to address issues of the present and future, and commit ourselves as a generation, to handing over an intact, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, prosperous and powerful nation to our children." As with other cleansing, healing and symbolic reparation ceremonies in South Africa's nine provinces, soil from the graves of people who died during conflict, was collected and will be brought to Freedom Park site in Pretoria to form a memorial to those who died in conflict in South Africa. Freedom Park Trust is compiling a list of names of people who fell as victims of conflict, to have them inscribed on a boulder to form part of the Isivivane monument at Freedom Park at Salvokop in Pretoria. The events in Gaborone and Mgoditshane also served to cement, strengthen and consolidate relations between the peoples of South Africa and Botswana, and remind the citizens of the two countries that such relations are sealed with their common blood shed during their joint struggle against a vicious apartheid enemy. To facilitate the process of convening the event, a committee made up of South Africans and Batswana was established to prepare and plan for the three-day event which included a cleansing and healing ceremony performed by traditional doctors from both countries, visiting the graves and a wreath-laying ceremony, an exhibition at the Art Gallery of the National Museum in Gaborone, poetry and live music by renowned artists like Jonas Gwangwa, Steve Dyer, Rampholo Molefhe and others. Retired General Andrew Masondo led the contingent of South African traditional doctors. The Gaborone event was attended and addressed by high-ranking personalities from both countries and across the political spectrum. These included South Africa's High Commissioner to Botswana, Eunice Komane, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, former ANC Deputy Secretary General, Thenjiwe Mtintso, Minister of Housing, Brigitte Mabandla, Mogale City's Executive Mayor, Lentswe Mkgatle, North West MEC For Education, Pitso Tolo and others. The ANC, PAC and AZAPO were represented during the cleansing and healing ceremony. Botswana dignitaries included Michael Dingake, a Botswana national who served 18 years on Robben Island for ANC activities, Deputy Director of Academic Services at the University of Botswana, Motsei Madisa-Rapelana and former Botswana Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Gaositwe Chiepe. Madisa-Rapelana gave a detailed account of how she worked with underground MK units and how this turned her into a nomad in her own country. She had to be on the move to avoid detection by agents of the apartheid regime, and had to change houses on a regular basis. Thenjiwe Mtintso urged that it will be necessary for similar events to take place in other countries of Southern Africa, because the people who died, did so in order for us to live. We need to express gratitude for their sacrifices, but we also need to mourn their passing, as we did not have the opportunity previously to do so. The organisers of the Gaborone regrouping event hope to organise an even bigger event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1985 massacre in June 2005. --------------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2003/at24.htm To receive ANC Today free of charge by e-mail each week go to: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/subscribe.html To unsubscribe yourself from the ANC Today mailing list go to: http://lists.anc.org.za/mailman/listinfo/anctoday