BY DAN MDLULI
MBOMBELA – The Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, has lambasted the “distorted article by News24 online” in which MEC Vusi Shongwe was misquoted as “MEC calls for ANC to confiscate farms of farmers violating human rights.”
The department said in fact, MEC Shongwe wished to place it on record that when he was interviewed by a journalist from the News24 stable, he explicitly said government should explore the possibilities of confiscating state owned land which had been leased to farmers who abused and disregarded workers’ rights.
According to the department, MEC Shongwe’s comments came in light of the recent killing of two farm dwellers at a farm outside Piet Ritief, and countless other murders and abuses of farm workers and dwellers.
“The land in state hands belongs to all South Africans and it cannot be that when the state leases that land to an individual, that individual abuses people who are the actual owners of the land which is in the custody of the state,” said Shongwe.
MEC Shongwe was adamant that a clause must be inserted in a lease deal which states clearly that in the event that the farm dwellers or workers were subjected to any form of abuse on state land by the farmer, that land would be confiscated.
The department said it was very unfortunate for the journalist to deliberately mislead the public by quoting the MEC selectively and out of context.
It added that such tendencies had a potential to cause rifts and uncertainty in the farming community and that it smacked of irresponsible journalism that seeks to sensationalise critical and emotive issues such as the land.
Picture Credit: 013News
