T
he SA Human Rights Commission has been asked to investigate Chief Phatekile Holomisa for calling on South Africans to reclaim land from whites by next year, said the Afrikanerbond on Wednesday.
Afrikanerbond chief secretary Jan Bosman said the comments by the chief, reported by the SABC, were an incitement to violence and because he made reference to race, his comments were seen as an advocacy of hatred.
According to the SABC, Holomisa said land was not bought from blacks if it was forcibly taken by whites. He was speaking at McGregor Mgolombana memorial lecture in the Eastern Cape on August 15.
“We need to prepare ourselves next year for a struggle for the restoration of land so that we no longer have situations where 87 percent of land is in white hands and the 13 percent is occupied by blacks,” Holomisa reportedly said.
Bosman said freedom of expression in the SA Bill of Rights excluded, among other things, the propaganda for war, incitement of imminent violence and advocating hatred that was based on race.
“Pronouncements such as these have all the potential to be misconstrued by unsophisticated people,” said Cupido.
Holomisa said there was nothing that incited violence in his statement.
“There is absolutely nothing [in the statement] that violates the constitution,” Holomisa told Sapa.
“As traditional leaders, we are the custodians of land and that land is a basic human right which you can’t …”
Holomisa said the state did not have money to buy back land from white people and then distribute it amongst the blacks.
“Hence there are informal settlements mushrooming all over South Africa because we have abandoned the African people.”
Holomisa said every African was entitled to a piece of land, so individuals could build homes and produce food for their families.
The chief said he had not been informed that the SAHRC had received a complaint about his comments.
SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena could not immediately confirm whether the complaint from the Afrikanerbond would be investigated. – Sapa