Minister meets with landless
2004-01-10 15:18
Durban - Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Thoko Didiza on Saturday held a meeting with the Landless People's Movement in Durban to discuss with them the issue of holding a national land summit.
LPM spokesperson, Mangaliso Kubheka, said the meeting, which was the first meeting the LPM ever had with the minister, was called for by the minister.
Kubheka said the LPM asked the minister to consider holding a national land summit to discuss property clause issues and issues relating to the willing buyers and willing sellers of property.
The minister said that she would give the LPM a reply on whether the summit will be held before the end of January, said Kubheka.
He said the meeting was "worthwhile".
The LPM has been pressurising government to act on land redistribution and has called on its members not to vote in this year's general elections.
However, on Thursday it remonstrated that its members were not "vigilantes" and that it had no plans to form paramilitary units.
This was in response to media reports that it had threatened to create a people's army.
"The LPM is a non-violent, rights-based movement struggling for comprehensive land and agrarian reform for the country's 26-million poor and landless people," Thursday's media statement said.
- SAPA