WATCH | No peace without land, says Lumumba

Kenyan intellectual Professor Patrick Lumumba said without land there will be no peace in Africa.

Lumumba was delivering the Nelson Mandela Memorial lecture at Walter Sisulu University Mthatha campus this evening.

“Nelson Mandela would have reminded us that the last colonial question is land. If you don’t tackle the issue of land, you shall never know peace,” Lumumba said to loud applause from the crowd that packed the auditorium.

The lecture was also attended by, among others, Bhisho legislature deputy speaker Mlibo Qoboshiyane, department of rural development and agrarian reform MEC Xolile Nqatha and ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi.

The land question has become a hot potato in South Africa following the 2017 ANC December conference in Nasrec which adopted the policy of land expropriation without compensation.

Lumumba continued reminiscing that if Mandela was among the people celebrating the centenary he would have asked numerous important questions including that how does a continent like Africa rich in mineral resources still be poor today?

“He would have asked how is it that our continent that is so endowed produces what it does not consume and consumes what it does not produce. He would have asked whether the continent of Africa is really liberated. Nelson Mandela would have reminded us that we Africans have suffered more,” Lumumba said

He said time has come for Africa to cleanse itself and deal with corruption as Mandela would have liked.

“The time has come we must do away with dealers and have leaders, do away with cheaters and have teachers instead. He would have posed the question that; how is it that corruption is still a scourge in our continent. Madiba would have told us to unite,” he said.

The land question has become a hot potato in South Africa following the 2017 ANC December conference in Nasrec which adopted the policy of land expropriation without compensation.