By Mxolisi Ntshiba
Land has been a central question in the struggle against settler colonialism and apartheid, not only in our country but throughout the world. Initially, the South African struggle against colonialism was fundamentally about the struggle for the return of land to dispossessed Africans, and later became the struggle for civil and political freedoms and rights.
Our forebears understood the struggle to be about land, as Frantz Fanon wrote in The Wretched (prefer Damned) of the Earth, that “for a colonised people, the most essential value, because it is the most meaningful, is first and foremost the land”. Even the African American revolutionary Malcolm X will affirm later that any radical transformation of society has to address the land question: “Revolution is always based on land.” It is with this particular understanding that our forebears engaged in the war of resistance against British land dispossession through nine frontier wars from 1779 to 1878.
Our town Makhanda occupies a special place in this history as the site of the fifth frontier war, which is now known as the Battle of Egazini and is recognised by the Makana Local Municipality, which recently reinstated the annual commemoration of this important history. Unfortunately, our local leadership in the municipality seemingly fails to understand the importance of this historical event, as it has been reduced to the slaughtering of cattle for celebration, which are then stolen by municipality officials. The event should be about taking stock of the road taken since 1994 in restoring land to our people, not only those that are farm dwellers, but to urban residents as well.
As the South African Communist Party, we recognise the spirit behind the initiative by Makhanda residents to occupy unused land and build their own houses. It is a known fact that government-led land reform has not yielded any significant results, especially as it relates to urban land. In the past 12 years, there have been no housing projects in the city. Although the municipality promised housing development during their Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meetings and mayoral imbizos, no progress has been made except for a housing project at the landfill sites, including J Street, Mnandi, and other small informal settlements. The backlog of housing has exponentially increased from an estimated 15 000 in 2013 to more than 30 000 by now.
Even the planned housing projects (i.e., Phase 2 of Extension 10) will not cater for all residents of Makhanda that are in need of housing, as the number is limited to just above 1 200 RDP houses, excluding those that are working who mostly ended up renting the same RDP houses from their government beneficiaries. This focus on vulnerable groups in our society is crucial; however, the government must not fail our people, because the right to access adequate houses is universal.
In the SACP, we take this right to access adequate housing very seriously, and we believe that the initiative to take land for housing purposes is a progressive realisation of this important right. As people, especially the formerly oppressed and the presently disadvantaged, we should be wary of those who seek to criminalise homelessness and landlessness.
Today, homeless and landless people are told not to build their homes, whether they are informal or formal, next to certain areas, such as Extension 5 (Kwa Tyme), because informal settlements will devalue the property value of these homes. Others are arguing that the land to be occupied is a sacred place, as it is used for the male customary initiation practice, and by occupying the place, land occupants will be denying prospective initiates their right to practise initiation. There are also others who argue that the majority of the land occupiers are employed people who, instead of buying houses, bought themselves expensive cars.
As a communist and the leader of the South African Communist Party here in Makana, I reject all three claims. The land occupation initiative has revealed class contradictions within historically marginalised people; a certain portion of them will seek to safeguard their own interests at the expense of the majority, who are homeless and landless. Imagine seeking to deny the majority of people the right to access adequate shelter because it will devalue your property: where is Ubuntu?
I believe that most of the individuals involved in the land occupation initiative speak Xhosa and therefore understand the importance of the customary male initiation practice. The land is not the first place and the last place where initiation takes place, as in the past the land earmarked for it has seen housing developments, such as eVukani and recently, KwaSonki, where today we have the Enkanini Informal Settlements. The Xhosa customary initiation practice will continue to be practised, albeit in another area.
The claim that land occupiers are mostly workers should be most welcomed, not rejected, as they have the financial muscle to build their own houses. In fact, the Freedom Charter says, “There shall be housing, security, and comfort for all,” not a select few. It further says that “all people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed, and bring up their families” and “unused housing space to be made available to the people.” The people of our town have identified the unused land space to build their own homes and exercise the right to “live where they choose,” and we commend them for that initiative.
Thirty years of democracy have shown that the government-led route of restoring land and the provision of decent shelter to our people has failed, and the only available route for our people is to occupy unused land to address homelessness and landlessness in our country. How long should our people wait for housing? When a housing project is implemented, those in power manipulate the housing list process for the benefit of their circle of friends and family, as we have seen with the Extension 10 housing project.
As local communists, we will fully participate in this initiative to ensure that our people are not victimised, which is always the case when community-led protests are initiated. As a leader of the SACP, this is an opportune time that we revive the Mawubuye Umhlaba Campaign, which nationally the SACP implemented not only to focus on transformation of land ownership in favour of our people but also as a campaign that sought to ensure equitable access to agricultural land for food production but also to address urban land for housing purposes. We must not fail the fallen heroes who defended this land in the Battle of Egazini.
- Mxolisi Ntshiba serves as the SACP Makana Sub District Coordinator and as the Deputy Chairperson of the Concerned Makana Residents. He writes in his personal capacity.
