The unity of black people with their Colored counterparts and the return of land to rightful owners were some of the hot topics during a  gathering of community-based organisations, including members of the Operation Dudula Movement, Black Entrepreneurs Alliance, and the Soweto Alliance. The dialogue was held at the Anchor Comprehensive School in Orlando West, Soweto, on Saturday.

uMkhonto weSizwe MP Zwelakhe Mthethwa, said that for poor black South Africans to regain their land, which was stolen through conquest and legislation, the unity of black people across all ethnic groups needs to be paramount.

“The only way we resolve the issue of land dispossession is for us as Black people to unite against those who have a problem with us, which is those who own the land that belongs to us. Those who have been bought must not disturb the process that should unfold of returning the land to its rightful owners. Our traditional leaders successfully reclaimed the land in 1994, but those leading us have failed to return the land to the people. The documents and all the proof are there,” he stated.

Operation Dudula’s Bhekani Thusi stated: “Now more than ever, we must meet and unite as South Africans to find a common goal to deal with the issue of land, immigration, and the economy because we have become spectators in our land. We have just come from a very progressive march in KZN.”

Chief Xam Keith Duarte, who is part of the Gauteng Housing Crisis Committee and represents the Khoi San and the people of Eldorado Park, decried the lack of support the Coloured community receives from the government, especially when it comes to housing and human settlements.

As a result, he revealed that he and other community leaders in Eldorado Park have identified land which they plan to roll out to community members who have not benefited from the country’s Redistribution and Development Programme (RDP) for the past 30 years.

“As the people of Eldorado Park, and what has brought us here today, is the issue of Operation Occupation. We are now occupying all the vacant land and spaces in Eldorado Park for human settlement. We are doing this because, for over 31 years, there has not been a single RDP house built for our people. All the RDP and mega housing projects happen around us and not in our community, and when it comes to allocation of these projects, we are told, because we do not stay in that region, we cannot be allocated houses,” he stated.

With more community meetings envisaged, the gathering hopes to speak in one voice as they take their issues to Parliament later this year.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za

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