20 December 2004
The SACP is outraged at the rejection of the Agricultural Black Economic Empowerment (AgriBEE) Charter by the Transvaal Agricultural Union. We are however not surprised by this stance as this Union still represents some of those farmers who are most resistant to transformation in our country. Our own Red October Campaign has helped us to understand better the very unco-operative attitude and resistance of the TAU to land and agrarian reform in our country. Indeed the TAU has also been very silent about the many problems and violence directed at farmworkers and their communities.
The outright rejection of the AgriBEE Charter by the TAU serves to underline that this Union is actively resisting the transformation of the land and agricultural landscape in our country. It proves that it is still firmly committed to the maintenance of the unsustainable racialised land and agricultural regime in our country.
The AgriBEE Charter, together with our call for a National Land Summit, provides opportunities for effective and constructive engagement on land and agrarian reform. We would have expected that this union would at least grab this opportunity as its own contribution towards effective land redistribution in our country. We are still calling upon TAU to review its stance and join in the processes to transform land and agriculture in our country.
The stance by TAU only serves to reinforce our determination to intensify our Red October Campaign ?Mawubuye Umhlaba?, to transform land and agriculture for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of South Africans. To this end, we shall deepen the mobilisation of rural communities in 2005 and beyond, to demand land for the landless, an end to the exploitation of farmworkers and expose atrocities perpetrated in many of the farms. We will also deepen our call and seek to work together with the justice system to expose all perpetrators of violence and abuse in the farms.
We therefore call upon our people, especially those in the rural areas, to deepen their participation in our Red October Campaign, as they are the only ones who can ensure that indeed land is returned to the people and farmworkers? rights are secured.
CONTACT:
Kaizer N. Mohau
Media Office
South African Communist Party (SACP)
Tel: 011 339-3621/2
Fax: 011 339-4244/6880
Cell: 073 571 7528
Email: kaizermohau@sacp.org.za
Website: www.sacp.org.za