Nasreen Seria
10 September 2002
Johannesburg — The Landless People Movement's exposure grew at the summit with the arrest of seven and a march of 10000 people
THE Landless People's Movement managed to get centre stage at the World Summit on Sustainable Development no mean feat for this small and largely rurally-based organisation.
The group, which claims a membership of 30000, used the international spotlight, as it did at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban last year, to protest against landlessness and poverty and to attack government for what it claims is the slow pace of land reform in the country.
The movement has grown its base from a largely rural one comprising smaller groups from KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga to incorporate a growing number of dissatisfied urban dwellers in informal settlements, vulnerable to evictions.
The movement was propelled into the spotlight days before the opening of the summit when seven activists were arrested at an illegal march to the Gauteng premier's office. They were demanding an end to evictions at all informal settlements.
The movement's exposure grew when an organised march during the summit from Alexandra to Sandton under the banner of the Social Movements Indaba a grouping of other civil society groups drew more than 10000 people. In contrast, a government-organised gathering in Alexandra, addressed by President Thabo Mbeki, drew a crowd of 3000 people.
But it is the group's threats to invade unoccupied land in SA that has given it more serious attention than would otherwise be afforded to such a minority grouping.
The movement agreed at the summit to embark on a programme of identifying unoccupied or under-utilised land state-owned and private which could then be expropriated for the landless.
Mangaliso Kubheka, the LPM's national organiser, said next year would be the "year of action", which would include the "invading of land", unless government acceded to its request for a land summit to discuss the pace of land reform.
Statements like these are bound to put increasing pressure on government to take the group seriously, to prevent any misperception that SA was going the way of Zimbabwe in allowing "landgrabbing".
The movement's threats of land occupation may have received more attention than otherwise because of events in Zimbabwe. But underlying all the radical statements and slogans are very real concerns about the perceived dereliction of duty by government in attending to the land, housing and poverty-eradication promises to the electorate of 1994.
Determining the success of the land affairs department in transferring land from white to black hands is a political issue in itself. Unconfirmed figures suggest that 2% of the 87% of whiteowned land in SA has been transferred to black owners since 1994.
Zakes Hlatshwayo, director of the National Land Committee, which supports the movement financially and politically, criticised the government programme for failing to make real progress in giving land-poor people access to land.
"The land reform process operates within a limited framework and is not performing well. Land reform is a market-led process, based on a willing buyer and willing seller. Those who own the land still make the decisions about what land to sell, when, where and how. The market is manipulated by those who have the land and are willing to sell. And, for economic reasons, they are not always willing to sell. We are saying that there must be a policy review. Rather than a market-led process, government can get involved and regulate how the land is acquired," he said.
Government has held firm that it would prevent land invasions in the country. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula told parliament last month that "there will be no land grab in SA" and that "no farmers will be chased off their farms".
However, government is rattled by the public exposure of the movement, since the group has been the subject of a number of investigations by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
The LPM has accused the NIA of infiltrating the movement to change the direction of its policies and agenda.
Hlatshwayo said the group would look for political alliances next year in the run-up to the 2004 general elections.
"The state is a contested area and unless there is a critical mass of people (supporting) the state, it will lose out," said Hlatshwayo.
The land affairs department defended its land reform programme to transfer ownership of land and said the process had been speeded up significantly since last year.
The department is also quick to point out that many of the LPM's concerns , such as evictions from informal settlements and farmworker abuses, are matters for other departments.
Whether the LPM can capitalise on the attention it received during the world summit remains to be seen.
The group will continue to be a thorn in the side of the government as long as the land affairs department refuses to accede to a land summit.
This, however, is unlikely, as a land summit to review the land reform policy of the government would be an acknowledgement that it had failed in changing land ownership in the country.
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