EFF to march for ‘stolen’ land
The red berets, as they are known, have vowed to march to Leopard Creek, the golfing country estate belonging to billionaire Johann Rupert.
MALALANE – The Mpumalanga EFF is planning to take its fight for land to the next level. The red berets, as they are known, have vowed to march to Leopard Creek, the golfing country estate belonging to billionaire Johann Rupert.
The organisation’s provincial leader, Collen Sedibe, said they are busy preparing to march to the estate, one of Rupert’s many properties throughout the country.
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“We believe the land on which Rupert has built Leopard Creek was stolen from the people of Nkomazi, and as such they need to be compensated or be given shares in the estate, as the rightful beneficiaries,” said Sedibe. Sedibe said the decision to march on the estate forms part of the national campaign to fix the wrongs of the past as created by the apartheid system.
“This is a simple call to say that we need our land back. Our people were forcefully removed from fertile land and driven to mountainous and unfavourable land. It is an embarrassment that 28 years into our democracy, our people are still landless, yet you have just one person owning the biggest piece of land in the area. We are going to correct this, because it’s obvious that the ANC government is not willing to fix this mess. The EFF will not rest until the land has been returned and our people are totally emancipated from this bondage and other social ills.”
The EFF’s national office made an official announcement on Thursday that it would march to show its “disdain” about the arrival of the first European settlers in the country over 300 years ago.
“In order to register our disdain about the arrival of white settlers in South Africa on April 6, 1652, which is the day when the problems of black people began, the EFF will engage in a direct confrontation with Johann Rupert by marching to the stolen land he claims to own in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga,” read part of the EFF’s statement.
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Last year, the EFF staged one of their biggest protests when they forcefully shut down all border gates leading to the Kingdom of eSwatini, in solidarity with the people of this tiny kingdom’s pro-democracy protests.
