Deputy President David Mabuza: Communal Land Administration and Tenure Summit

• Published date: 27 May 2022
• Publication title: South African Official News

Address by H.E. Deputy President, Mr David Mabuza at the Communal Land Administration and Tenure Summit held in Birchwood Hotel, Kempton Park, Gauteng Province

Programme Director, Minister Thoko Didiza;

The Premier of Gauteng Province, Mr David Makhura;

King and Queens;

Ministers and Deputy Ministers;

The Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, Nkosikazi Mhlauli: Ah! NoSandi;

The Deputy Chairperson of the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders Kgosi Seatlholo: Rapulana!;

Members of the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders;

Premiers;

MECs of COGTA and Agriculture;

Chairpersons of Provincial Houses of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders;

President of CONTRALESA and CONTRALESA Executive;

Mayors from all Districts and Metros;

Leadership of the South African Local Government Association;

Representatives of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform;

Representatives of the academia, non-governmental organisations, legal experts, business and broader civil society;

Representatives of traditional and Khoi-San communities;

Directors-General and Senior Officials of Government;

Members of the media;

All delegates.

Programme Director,

Our gathering here today and tomorrow, marks an important milestone in our efforts of resolving the National Question and the quest to affirm our heritage founded on right to land as an important pillar for the realisation of development.

Land, heritage and national identity are inseparable, as they define how we perceive ourselves as a sovereign nation with uncontested right self-determination.

The national land spaces of our birth define ecosystems of life, our collective consciousness, nationhood and the possibilities of future progress that any nation including ours, desires for its people.

The nation lives because it has land!

The native people of the land live, because they define themselves in relation to the land they inhabit for their development and progress.

Even the powerless and the poor are born into land that must define their identities and provide sustenance to them and generations to come.

It goes without saying that the lives of communities are intertwined with land and its natural endowments that must benefit them. Individually and collectively, as a community, people must have access to land for their development and progress.

As we gather today in this Summit, our reflections must not escape the inevitable constitutional injunctions that land administration and tenure systems that we opt for, must primarily put the interests of the people and communities first.

In traditional communities, ownership of and access to land for productive use, will forever remain critical levers for addressing the legacies of underdevelopment and social deprivation.

We have no doubt that traditional leaders gathered here today, understand and appreciate the value of land in helping to advance the...