Dismantling colonial land evils will help feed Africa

OUR 20-year-old land reform experience has taught us many lessons, revealed dangers and exposed sensitive areas. But what is important is that, in sustaining our clear progressive policy direction, it is now time to roll up our sleeves and work the land more.

There was a time where we had to discuss land reform policy. Many differed with us because they were diametrically opposed to progressive transformation of our society, including reversing the destruction ushered by Nongqawuse, by colonialism, the 1913 Land Act, wars of dispossessions and other evils that destroyed our land.

We’ve had to share ideas on how we move with these matters, and I am sure sharing those ideas is a life-long process because after each epoch we ought to review what was done previously.

Ongoing talks like the recently held national land tenure summit help us share our ideas and wisdom on how we address sensitive land reform for the prosperity of all South Africans.

We must focus on the provisions of the current land reform policies by exploring opportunities and responsibility for domestic and continental development.

Central to our perspective must be the fact that the struggle against colonialism, apartheid, and its decentralisation was waged by all of Africa, the diaspora and like-minded democrats.

In those countries we shared food, land, and resources with our comrades. Some of these countries today are ravaged by wars, which result in famine, poverty, hunger, starvation, displacement of millions of communities, increasing ill-health and malnutrition.

While we explore diplomatic ways to end wars, we must help produce food to send as aid to our fellow Africans affected by these senseless wars.

At its June Malabo meeting, the African Union affirmed strategic focus on agriculture, to bring young people into the sector, to increase public-private investment and to embark on agriculture infrastructure and resource programmes. The union affirmed increased access to land and applied science and technology input to modernise farming.

If evils of the previous decades brought us closer as Africans, the current challenges faced by our sister countries must bring us closer still because, when we work together, we defeat any adversity.

The land is being restored back to our people, the farms that government is acquiring for our people to produce food and farm livestock must not only produce enough to feed their families, but must also help fight hunger elsewhere on the continent.

South Sudan, Somalia and Central Africa Republic are some of the countries ravaged by wars with many people displaced from their land.

Because we too have been displaced by evil systems and senseless racism, we know poverty and hunger; hence we must help those in need.

Leaders from Lesotho, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola contributed to our liberation and now it is time for us to extend that ubuntu through provision of food to our needy brothers and sisters.

This demands that we increase the input into our land, maximising livestock production so that we can produce enough food to feed our people and our comrades in the continent.

For this purpose it is important that we equip our young people to be active participants in the agricultural sector.

Young people under the age of 35 make up about two thirds of the African population and this is the age group we need to invest in to help rescue our continent.

For this, we need for them to grab all existing opportunities in production, transport, logistics, marketing, packaging, export, agro-processing, trade facilitation and many more sectors.

These opportunities will help us improve continental trade amongst ourselves as African countries before we rush to export to other continents.

If we produce quality agricultural produce like meat, tea, maize, fruits, vegetables and other products from the soil, Africa must be the first to taste its beauty of her soil, the produce of her land, before we export.

Our close proximity means costs to export are more affordable. It does however demand the building of transport, trade, and harbour infrastructure so that delivery is seamless and on time.

With this we can create more jobs for our people, expand business opportunities and grow the African economy faster than the people are displaced from their homes.

We must learn from wars in others parts of Africa and vow never to repeat what led to these wars. That is why it needles me when people in our province fight over land, irrigation schemes, farms and resources attached to them.

Our land reform policy restores what was destroyed by the Nongqawuse incident, colonialism and apartheid.

So, we must be sober to the challenges facing our society, end the infighting before it escalates to wars.

There is truth in what iNkosi Jonginyaniso Mtirara said at the land summit that we must work together to manage and care for our land and stop land invasions.

We must use our energy, skills and passion to produce food and trade with each other.

We also need to realise that we will not all farm and produce livestock; some must sell, package, market that stock for us to make money. We must also share with those who don’t have food for them to have good health.

Delivering the seventh annual Nelson Mandela lecture, Professor Muhammad Yunus, said: “We can overcome poverty, if only we decide that this does not belong to the world that we want to create.”

We should start the revolution from our homes by farming together to fight poverty and reduce the shocking number of starving people. We have all the resources to end poverty. Let’s end it now. And if you ask if we can do this, my answer is, yes we can.

Mlibo Qoboshiyane is the Eastern Cape Rural Development and Agrarian

Reform MEC and a member of the ANC EC PEC