Landless people march in W Cape

2008-04-28 16:15

Johannesburg - The Mawubuye Landless people's movement on Monday marched to the Western Cape local government offices in Robertson demanding delivery on government promises of land access for the poor, said the organisation.

"There are a lot of commercial farmers in the Brede River Wineland municipality and they do not want to hand over this land to the people.

"We have been speaking to the municipality, local and provincial government - and they are not working together in the process to hand over land to landless people by the 2014 (deadline)," said Mawubuye spokesperson Henry Michaels.

Six hundred people marched to the mayor's office in Roberston near Worcester to hand over the memorandum.

The movement demanded transparency on land held by the municipality and that it take necessary measures to make land accessible to the poor.

"(We demanded that) the contracts of farmers using municipal land not be renewed and that the land be given to small scale farmers and also that they stop the sale of municipal land to developers," he said.

The memorandum was handed over to the municipality mayor who promised to respond to the memorandum within 30 days.

"We are then going to sit down, put the matter on the table and discuss a way forward together," said Michaels.

- SAPA