Land for the landless and jobs for the unemployed are key to completing the democratic process in South Africa today, said Jubilee 2000’s Mallet Pumelele ‘MP’ Giyose addressing a Human Rights Day gathering in Prudhoe, near Peddie, on Tuesday.
Land for the landless and jobs for the unemployed are key to completing the democratic process in South Africa today, said Jubilee 2000’s Mallet Pumelele ‘MP’ Giyose addressing a Human Rights Day gathering in Prudhoe, near Peddie, on Tuesday.
Giyose, although present, had his speech read on his behalf by the Masifunde Education and Development Project Trust’s David Sandi.
Recalling Mangaliso Sobukwe’s call for Africans to defy pass laws and force the opening up of more jobs to black people in urban areas, Giyose said Sobukwe’s heart had beaten “at the same rate as the heart of every worker in the country who needed work or a job”.
Callling on the working class and landless peasants to stand up and be counted, Giyose said they should demand “the final fulfilment of those programs within the incomplete democratisation process in South Africa today”.
The day-long programme in the village near Peddie saw several organisations come together, first for a memorial service to community leader from the area, Rawutini Dapo, followed by speeches and performances in the village’s community hall.
Speeches in a tent beside the family’s home drew a crowd of around 150 residents from the area along with activists from various organisations.
The group proceeded to Dapo’s grave, where imbongi yomthonyama Baxolise Gadla performed and several speakers including Dapo’s elder sister Sylvia Dapo spoke in praise of the late unionist.
In the Prudhoe Community Hall, messages of support for rural people’s struggle for land rights were delivered by representatives of student activist grouping Asinamali, the United Front, the Unemployed People’s Movement, the Rural People’s Movement and Masifunde, along with the EFF and the local ANC.
The main speakers who followed were Ayanda Kota (The crisis of migration and capitalism and the impact of xenophobia, Afrophobia and racism in our struggle for the transformation of society); Nomonde Philani (The role of women and young women in the transformation of society) and George Lamani (Sobukwe’s role in the liberation struggle).
The main theme of the day was land as a basic human right.
