The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) has applauded government for scraping the willing buyer, willing seller approach to land redistribution.

This comes after President Jacob Zuma announced the government will drop the principle when he was delivering his State of the Nation Address in Cape Town last month.

 PAC President Letlapa Mphahlele says what is left is for government to ensure that land goes back to the rightful owners.

Mphahlele made his comments during the election of a new leadership of Apla Military veterans in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.

The PAC says land restitution is one the major things that will make Africans enjoy their democracy. It added that the majority of the land should be in the hands of Africans not the white minority.

“We are happy that government will be abandoning that policy but we have a bigger problem as PAC that there is still a constitution that glorifies property rights. The people have rights to something they stole. A lot of land was got through the barrel of the gun and of course that is why we are convinced that every title deed has blood on it,” says Mphahlele.

Meanwhile, Apla Military Veterans say they are worried that there are still hundreds of political prisoners who are still in jail.

 “What hurts us is that the present government is not ensuring that people who were part of the struggle are released. These people were fighting against apartheid and racial classification but till today they are in jail. This makes one wonder what democracy they fought for really is,” says William Sibakelo, Apla Veteran.  

The PAC has called for the empowerment of veterans through education and training in various skills.

The Department of Military Veterans says empowerment programmes are in the pipeline.

“We are at a very advanced stage of finalising agreements with the higher education and training department to allow veterans and their dependents to have access to education in state institutions,” says Department of Military Veterans’ Tsepe Modupi.

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