Mr Jacob Zuma said in his State of the Nation Address that South Africa has a good story to tell.
I share the same sentiment with him.
Government’s theme for this year is Celebrating Twenty Years of Freedom and Democracy.
I cast my mind back and reflected on the events that unfolded in our country before the dawn of democracy and what democracy has ushered in.
My conclusion was indeed that South Africa has a good story to tell.
South Africans were not united in their diversity as they are today.
One race was elevated above the other, while the other race was reduced below humanity and rendered landless in the country of its birth.
This forced the other race to depend on another for survival as they could not be economically independent without having land.
Government sought to undo and reverse the injustices of the past following the dawn of democracy, hence statutory bodies such as the Land Claims Commission and the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights were established in terms of legislation.
As a result thousands of victims of land dispossession have approached these bodies and lodged their claims.
These were processed and their ancestral land was returned to them.
Where restoration was not possible, victims of land dispossession were financially compensated and this also helped to change their lives for the better as some used the money to begin businesses while some managed to take their children to universities.
One example is the claim lodged by several families who were forcefully removed from their land in order to give way to the establishment of Sasol in Secunda.
Their claims were finalised recently and each family received nearly a quarter of a million rand for losing their land rights as a result of racial laws.
I witnessed Mr Zuma handing over a title deed to the Nwandlamaharhi Communal Property Association in Hazyview in January following the restoration of their ancestral land that cost Government nearly one billion rand to buy for restitution purposes, making it the biggest claim in South Africa.
This is one of the major successes of the current democratic government among many other achievements.
Gideon Mudzweda, eMbalenhle.
