It is an honour to have South Africa’s land reform process compared to what happened in Zimbabwe, SA Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti told MPs yesterday.
“(President Robert) Mugabe is reversing what the British did to the people of Zimbabwe. It’s an honour,” he said in the National Assembly following an often angry and emotion-filled debate on his department’s 2013/14 budget.
Mr Nkwinti was responding to remarks made earlier in the House by Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald, who warned the minister he was “playing with fire” by whipping up emotions on the land issue.
“You are creating insecurity. I want to say to the honourable minister, you are creating a typical Zimbabwe situation’’.
“You are busy, before the election, to blame whites and apartheid [for the land situation],” Groenewald said. Nkwinti told Groenewald he was right.
‘‘You were right . . . about whipping up emotions, just like Zimbabwe. Yes, President Mugabe is the president of Zimbabwe, and here we have President Zuma. But he (Groenewald) says we’re like him (Mugabe). That is a praise, by the way.”
At this point, Nkwinti was interrupted by loud cries and heckling from opposition benches. The minister responded to these by repeating he considered the comparison with Zimbabwe to be praise for the work government was doing on land reform.
“Yes, it is praise . . . he (Groenewald) says we’re like Zimbabwe. That is praise, thank you very much.
“It’s an honour. It is an honour. What did you expect? Would you have been happier if he (Groenewald) had said, we were like the British colonialists who killed South Africans to take our land? Would that have been an honour?” Nkwinti asked, to loud cheers from ANC benches.
Earlier, he spelled out the ANC government’s aims on land reform and the future of South Africa in this regard.
“The Mangaung conference of the ANC has given us very clear instructions on this – go and change the skewed land ownership pattern in South Africa so that we can have black people taking control of the economy of the country,” Nkwinti said, to loud acclamation from ANC MPs.
{Sapa}
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