Speech by the Executive Mayor, Alderman Patricia de
Lille, at an event to commemorate the Natives Land Act
of 1913 on 17 June 2013
The Premier of the Western Cape, Honourable Helen Zille,
The Junior Mayor of Cape Town, Ms Thandokazi Sineke,
Councillors,
Land claimants,
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning, goeie dag, molweni.
I am privileged to welcome you all here today to commemorate this
historic day.
Most of you have filed land claims in the interests of claiming what was
unjustly taken from your families.
While many of you have seen some resolution, many still bear the pain of
waiting for a long-sought sense of justice and closure.
For there are certain tragedies so vast in scope that their legacies live on.
Their injustice runs through our history and into our foreseeable future.
We are forced to live with their effects.
In ways, seen and unseen, they have shaped us and the country in which
we live.
Few events fall into this category of sadness as neatly as the Natives Land
Act of 1913.
In and of itself, it was a fundamentally wicked device.
It was based on the racist determination that this country and its land
must be built on division.
But that was only its point of departure for that division would not be
equal.
Indeed, the underlying philosophy was one of racial hierarchy.
And in this hierarchy, there was little place for the majority of the
population.
Indeed, for black and coloured people, they were to be assigned 13% of
the entire land mass of what was then the Union of South Africa.
This devastated the majority of people, and their descendants, both
socially and economically.
It expropriated land from those whose identities and livelihoods were
closely bound to it.
This was not only an assault on identity – it was an assault on natural
justice.
Furthermore, in historical terms, it was a cornerstone of the architecture
of Apartheid that took the devices of prejudice to new lows.
It was a milestone in determining the structural nature of inequality that
defined 20th century South Africa.
In reaching this conclusion, we must take note of the fact that before the
Union of South Africa, there had been similar legislation in the Orange
Free State in 1876 while the Cape’s Glen Gray Act of 1894 had the effect
of undermining African communal rights.
But the 1913 Natives Land Act was the ultimate formalisation of colonial
oppression in the South African state.
And it was the keystone of Apartheid law and the Apartheid State.
Indeed, the Native Land Act worked to the advantage of white farmers by
getting rid of independent black tenancy while creating ‘reserves’ from
which industry and agriculture could source cheap labour.
And it is those patterns of migrancy, linking areas of historical neglect,
which lie as a barely-hidden network just behind the face of the new
South Africa.
But since 1994, the country has been working to address this legacy,
though with limited success.
I am reminded of a speech that the Deputy Chief Justice, Dikgang
Moseneke, gave on this subject last month.
He said, and I quote: ‘In short, restitution of land is smothered under the
burden of legal formalism and low access to courts and bureaucratic
bungles. There are ample constitutional and legal instruments to tackle
land equity. Seemingly very little has been done to facilitate land redress.’
He further remarked that new, innovative ways needed to be found to
address land equity.
While the function of land reform does not directly lie with local
government, we can play a role.
Indeed, in Cape Town, I believe that our drive for redress and
reconciliation has already achieved great results.
The Land Restitution claims which the City of Cape Town has completed
are: The Engelbreght family claim in Somerset West; the Langehoven
family in Somerset West; the Aziz family in Simon’s Town; the Welcome
Estate claims in Heideveld (Erf 103969); Protea Village claims in Bishop’s
Court (Erf 212 and 2429); the Constantia claims in Constantia (Erf 4724);
Richmond Park claims in Milnerton (Erf 239 – 7); Crawford claims in
Crawford (Erf 43855); and Constantia claims in Constantia.
Three examples stand out for me.
In the Steurhof community in Diep River, we were able to hand over 23
agreements of sale for transfer of ownership to tenants of City-owned
housing, kicking off a process of transferring title deeds to 130 tenants.
In Somerset West, we were able to settle a long-standing claim going
back to 1969 for families who were dispossessed due to discriminatory
ordinances by releasing land well under market value for the purposes of
restitution.
And in Claremont, where we are today, we have done our utmost in the
process of the restitution of 60 claimants by releasing land to the Regional
Land Claims Commission.
In the value chain of restitution, the City of Cape Town plays its part to
ensure that the Land Claims Commission is in a position to conduct its
social function with those waiting for justice.
And most significantly, land restitution is featured as an objective in our
strategic blueprint for the city, the Integrated Development Plan (IDP),
unlike other cities.
In conclusion, to those gathered here, my career has been focused on
fighting to address the imbalances of our history.
It is about fighting for justice, both in the here and now, and in the
future.
But it is also personal for me.
I can remember being a little girl sitting on my grandmother’s stoep.
She lived at number 39 Tenant Street in District 6.
She was forced to move to Lavender Hill because of the Group Areas Act,
which was the child of the Natives Land Act.
Today, when I drive past the address, my happy childhood memories are
mixed with the pain I feel because of her forced removal.
It is pain that will remain with me.
That is why we are still fighting for the future.
It’s why we are working hard to build a Caring and Inclusive City.
Our mission is to ensure that everyone has a stake in Cape Town.
And to build that future, we must ensure that we face up to our history,
as painful as it is.
That truth allows us to move forward and build the future, together.
Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.