01 -15 October 2020 The Asian Independent

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22 01-10-2020 to 15-10-2020 WORLDwww.theasianindependent.co.ukPOEMHOW TO BUILD ABETTER WORLDI lay awakeThinking how to buildA better worldCan you make rightWhat is wrongWith a song?I hear the voices crying outTo save the worldAnd a counter refrainThat the world can save itselfWhat about climate changeFires burning, hurricanes roaringAnd still some ask,“What has changed?”Men subjugating menAnd we turn a blind eyeYes, people areClamouring for changeBut the words are lostFor those in powerHave become deafProphets have come and goneStill the world remains the sameIrrfan's wife Sutapa appealsto legalise CBD oil in IndiaMumbai : Sutapa Sikdar, wife of late actorIrrfan Khan, has made an appeal for the legalisationCBD oil in India. Sutapa took to her unverifiedInstagram account on Tuesday to present herviewpoint. Sharing a photograph of the Londonhospital where Irrfan Khan underwent cancertreatment, Sutapa wrote on Instagram: "Londonrevisit looking at his hospital room from outsidelike everytime I did while he was there#walkingalone #wishyouwerethere #cancerpain#LegalizeCBDoilinindia."Irrfan passed away on April 29 this year afterbattling cancer for almost two years.On Monday, singer Sona Mohapatra spokeabout the benefits of CBD oil, which she came toknow during her sister's cancer treatment lastyear. Sona shared a note on her verifiedFacebook page: "The TV stories feel like a farceesp CBD oil and ganja and Whatapp chatsbeing talked about with such fervour.I discovered what the former was when mysister went through multiple surgeries for cancerlast year. Was told of how magical the healingand pain alleviating this could be for herrecovery.Unfortunately we couldn't find any easily inMumbai. Cannabis has been the base of allAyurveda till the British banned it I've learnt,thus taking away most of its efficacy."Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor wasrecently summoned by the Narcotics ControlBureau as part of the agency's probe into actorSushant Singh Rajput's death. Shraddha wascalled in by NCB after her alleged chat withSushant's former manager Jaya Saha, askingfor CBD oil, came to fore.Each person on this earthHave to look insideTheir heart and soulTo find the beautyAnd compassionIn one’s selfAnd that is the only wayWe can save our humanityAnd make the worldA better place– Jayanta GuhaSaguenay, September 20, 2020Akshay Kumar, Vaani Kapoorto shoot in London for'Bell Bottom' after GlasgowLondon : Akshay Kumar and Vaani Kapoor have finished theirGlasgow schedule for the upcoming film, Bell Bottom. They arenow set to shoot in London.Akshay posted an Instagram picture featuring his wife TwinkleKhanna and son Aarav, who are currently with him in the UK,along with the cast and crew of the film."So many happy faces in one frame...that's the result of a goodschedule. Goodbye Glasgow, hello London#BellBottom@_vaanikapoor_ @ranjitmtewari @jackkybhagnani@deepshikhadeshmukh @pooja_ent @emmayentertainment@onlyemmay@madhubhojwani @nikkhiladvani@aseemarora,"he wrote in the caption."Bell Bottom" is a spy thriller film directed by Ranjit M.Tewari, set in the 1980s. It also stars Lara Dutta and HumaQureshi and is slated for an April 2021 release.
www.theasianindependent.co.ukWORLD01-10-2020 to 15-10-202023Constance Galeo Mogale is an experiencedSouth African land activist whohas played leading roles in several campaignsand initiatives. She led a grassrootsmovement called the Land AccessMovement of South Africa (LAMOSA),A federation of communities claimingland through Restitution, an organisationthat challenged the Restitution ofLand Rights Amendment Act of 2015.She has a proven record in mobilisation,and have extensive experience on participatoryresearch She currently coordinatesthe Alliance for Rural Democracy(ARD,) a loose network of organisationscampaigning for land rights and livelihoodsin South Africa. She is also holdinga Post Graduate Diploma in economicManagement Science in theUniversity of Western Cape and currentlya 2018 Cohort of Atlantic fellowshipprogramme, a partnership of NelsonMandela Foundation and ColumbiaUniversity in the USA. She is currentlypursuing a master’s degree in EconomicManagement Science. In a wide rangingconversation with Vidya BhushanRawat, Ms Mogale explained variousissues of land rights, gender issues andracism in South Africa and why shefeels so much about them.She says that , “The need for radicalsocial movements arises from thebetrayal of promise by the currentGovernment, which failed to transformthe skewed patterns of land ownershipand reversing the legacy of the Historyof Dispossession The bitter colonial historyof dispossession in South Africatells us that land was taken from as faras the 1800. in 1913 Africans were cordiallyallocated 7% percent of theircountry. 93 percent of it was handed to349,837 colonial settlers. When thisland was found inadequate for Africansthe Tom lion Commission was appointedin 1916 and it was because of its findingsthat 20 years later, the colonial parliamentpassed the Native Trust LandAct 1936 which added 6 percent to the 7percent allocated to Africans in1913.This left the colonial settlers with87 percent.In 1950 the colonial parliamentpassed a law called Group Areas Act1950 to remove those Africans whowere too close to “European” land. Thiswas to intensify colonial racism, whichin 1948, colonial Prime Minister DanielMalan named “apartheid” (race separation).When the situation did not changeand the revolutionary movements inSouth Africa resorted to the armedstruggle; the apartheid colonialistregime resorted to creating “tribalrepublics” for Africans where theywould “rule themselves.” They werenine “republics” called “Homelands.”They were called Ciskei, Kwa-Ngwane,Lebowakgomo, Kwa-Ndebele, Venda,Kwa-Zulu, QwaQwa, Transkei, andBophuthatswana.But maybe the reconciliation argumentfrom the moderates, ANC rulingparty could be, let us talk the here andnow as it its complicated to resolveissues of 100 centuries ago. we need tobite what we can chew and talk the landrights now! The South African governmentland reform programme was supposedto deal with this injustice and provideredress, they failed! Only about 9%of the land was redistributed in 26 yearssince 1994 Many South Africans arefrustrated by this slow pace hence thecall for radical transformation on landand economic assets.Unfortunately, there is a very biggenerational gap and knowledge deficitbetween land activists since economicfactors are dominating the narratives.In CONVERSATION withConstance Galeo MogaleConstance Galeo Mogale explains Racism, Land Reforms and whyshe passionately speaks for Food Sovereignty in South AfricaThe young activists are following thetrends, ANC and other political movementshas gave up its liberation agenda,they are now economist activists whoare promoting agenda of accumulationand pushing up the bank balance. It isdifficult for social movement to functionwithout capital and funding. So, thestate of social mobilisation is very weakand co-opted.On the question of WomenThere are various spaces created forwomen only organising, for example wehave different movements havingwomen’s leagues, young adults’ forumsand so forth. These spaces assisted a lotin trying to outroot the silent voices ofwomen from the male dominatedspaces, however without strategic integration,it will always be ‘US andThem” We must also take into accountthat women are just not homogenous,they are part of communities from differentclasses, different positions ofprivilege, ethnicity, race and all. Thequestion is whose voice is louder andwhy? To answer the question posed herecorrectly, perhaps we need to categorisethese women spaces to be able to do justicein unpacking it.Generally, women continue to play avital role in the struggle for social justicein South Africa, yet their contribution isstill unappreciated, and they are stillmarginalised. The reason is that mostwomen themselves are still abiding bypatriarchal systems and the social stereotypicaldefined gender roles. If you lookat the contribution of women in all bigmovements, the churches, and the socialgroups, they are underestimated.Their contribution is in terms ofnumbers, their double reproductive roleand care work, yet their mindset andattitude are still one that is submissive tothe masculine gender, to serve and to dothe spadework. South Africa is oftenreferred to as the “rainbow nation” todescribe the country’s multiculturaldiversity, especially in the wake ofapartheid. The World Bank classifiesSouth Africa as an upper-middleincomeeconomy, and a newly industrializedcountry. Its economy is the second-largestin Africa, and the 34thlargestin the world. In terms of purchasingpower parity, South Africa hasthe seventh-highest per capita income inAfrica. However, poverty and inequalityremain widespread.The Land Question in South AfricaLandless is increasing, the trend ismoving towards prioritising commercialproduction as opposed to social housingand social production. This trend hasmade the South African governmentvulnerable during COVID19, and thesocial safety nets of the country are generallyweak to cope during disasters.This question is almost a follow up ofthe first question in the history of landdispossession.South Africa’s total land surface is472,281 square miles. But from theearly 1800 to 1969 through what theapartheid colonialist regime calledPromotion of Bantu Self-GovernmentAct No. 46, nine “Bantu Republics,”established and allocated 68,264 squaremiles of South African territory. Theremaining 404,017 square miles with allits mineral and agricultural wealth andother national resources remained underthe control of the minority white population,many of whom still have thearrogance to claim that they did not takeland from anyone. They found it“empty!” Oh! well, maybe they thoughtit was empty because Africans did nothave boundaries, border gates, it as afree access to those who use it. We lostfreedom of movement and weredeprived of scarce natural resources.I am an advocate of rural land, butlandlessness in South Africa is more visiblein peripheries of big cities and economichub provinces such asJohannesburg, Durban, Capetown andEastern Cape. Whereas I sometimesquestion the kind of reforms we areadvocating for as South Africans, I am infull solidarity with the urban movementswho continue to occupy land even if itmeans that they face the barrel of the gunfrom the SAPS, the Anti–Land InvasionUnit, the JMPD, the Red Ants and the socalled Law Enforcement inJohannesburg, Durban, East London andCape Town. These poor law-abiding citizensare criminalised for losing patiencewith the collapsing property redistributionsystem. They are impoverished peoplewho continue to face evictionsthroughout the country.The rural areas are so impoverishedthat people want to be closer to thecities so that they can improve theirlives. When they occupy unoccupiedland is because they seek to survive andto thrive, but most of the time they donot yield the expected results. We haveseen now during COVID-19 era howblack people who occupied land insearch of economic opportunities struggledto put food on their tables.Is the government redistributingland to the people or not? If yes, howmuch land has been allotted to peopleparticularly those of African origin.Government has not done well inRedistributing land to the black dispossessedpeople of our country. Statisticsshows that ever since 1994, only 9% ofthe land was distributed, owing to thefailed promise of 1994 ANC Manifesto,which promised to distribute 30% of thetotal surface area in 5 years, that was in1999. The goal post shifted from 1999to 2014 and still the Government failed,by 2014 only 4% of the land was redistributed,and mostly for urban housingand urban claims which was mostlydone through cash compensation ratherthan land. This is because of an everchangingpolicy framework whichregressed from Reconstruction andDevelopment Programme in 1994 toGrowth, Economy and RedistributionFramework (GEAR) which was hailedby many economists but was highly criticizedby labour movements and manyCSO’s. GEAR was the Governmentfive-year plan that focused on privatizationand the removal of exchange controls,which was never evaluated to date.This affected land reform policieswhere we saw the changes ofRedistribution Policy from Settlementand Acquisition grants to Land forRedistribution and Agricultural policywhich favoured commercial farming andmonopolising of the industry. SouthAfrican Government has no law whichregulates redistribution and guiding officialson who is supposed to benefit, whatland for what purposes. The policies proposede.g. Proactive Land AcquisitionStrategy (PLAS) has turned SouthAfrican beneficiaries into tenants, andLRAD has left many farmers indebted asgrants were badly managed by LandBank, one of State-owned enterprises.Is there any law that prohibits peoplefrom amassing huge agriculturalland, basically, the upper limit of havingland. Like in India we have LandCeiling laws which make land above acertain limit as unlawful but thenthere are lots of gaps as people canacquire huge lands in the name ofreligious places, institutions as well ascow shelters.We need a Land Redistribution Actand Subdivision of Agricultural LandAct in South Africa.There is nothing in place for now.Policies such as land ceiling, Limitationof foreign ownership of land in SouthAfrica, have since been proposed in2005 Land Summit Resolution, but havenever been implemented. InRedistribution, every new minister comingto power has proposed their ownnew policies such as Proactive LandAcquisition Strategy and LRAD, butthese are not monitored and no one canhold the Government accountable, sincethese are just voluntary policies and notproclaimed acts of the law.There are 2 progressive reports thatwas developed through appointment ofHigh Panel On High Level Panel OnThe Assessment Of Key LegislationAnd The Acceleration Of FundamentalChange, led by the former DeputyPresident, Kgalema Motlanthe and thesecond one was appointed by the currentPresident himself, Hon PresidentRamaphosa called Key Advisory Panelo land Reform which also presentedvery progressive recommendations, butall those progressive reports are overshadowedby the debate to expropriateland without compensation.How did you come in the LandRights movement and when?I was born in the farming familieswho were dispossessed of their land andforcefully removed to further arid areaswhere farming life was impossible.Every evening, there was a group ofmale elders who used to gather in ourhouse to discuss their fate, and to planon how to react to the current challengesof livelihoods. My Grandmother wascompensated with a 21 hector smallholdingbut she was never allowed tooccupy it, she settled in the villagewhich was 30 km’s away where everyonewas given 450sqm yard, so it meantthat the livestock would be taken care ofby family uncles and she had no accessor control to that wealth.In 1991, when I was completing mymatric in Ramatlabama, I saw on televisionthat the same group of strategistswho always met at my Grandma’s housewere occupying the land forcefully inVentersdorp. This activism was inspiredby the release of Tata Nelson Mandela inprison. Many other dispossessed communitiesaround the country were also goingback to their land forcefully, supportedby organisations such as Black Sash, TheSouth African Council of Churches,Legal Resources Centre etc. It was inthose years that the Bantustan systemwas also attacked, and that inspired me tojoin those elders in their movementbuilding. Shortly after that, a movementcalled the Land Access Movement ofSouth Africa was born, and when theyformalised in 1999, I was recruited as theNational Organiser in 1999.What was your childhood about.Your parents and village?My childhood life was that of a ruralgirl. I know all the chores of being arural young girl who must walk morethan 5 km to fetch water and wood. Inthe compensatory land ofVrischgewaagd where water was nonexistence,as girls we used to take laundryand take a journey to the neareststream to wash clothes.See Page 24
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