Let us not see the issue of land as reason to pack and go, Ramaphosa tells Afrikanerbond

"Let us not see the issue of land as a reason to pack and go," said Ramaphosa, calling on members of the organisation not to see "land reform as a threat, but as an opportunity".

Ramaphosa addressed the Afrikanerbond centenary celebrations in Paarl in the Western Cape on Thursday night.

He called on the organisation to back land reform and reiterated that the property clause in the Constitution will not change.

He said a "collective responsibility" exists to ensure that "land be shared equally among South Africans".

"We call on all South Africans including the members of the Afrikanerbond to see the acceleration of land reform not as a threat but as an opportunity."

He cautioned not to "[run] to foreign capitals ringing the alarm bells" but help to breakdown the trenches of apartheid that are still found in society.

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"This will also help us to repair the spatial architecture that was put in during the apartheid years, where black people who were obviously the poorest in the society, were pushed further and further away from their work and economic centres."

The organisation's chairperson Jaco Schoeman praised the president for his remarks, saying they accept the challenge "to contribute, to build".

Ramaphosa reminded the gathering two of the most discriminating and degrading laws took effect only a few years before and after the Broederbond's establishment.

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He referred to the 1913 Natives Land Act and the Native Urban Areas Act.

Ramaphosa described them as "two pieces of legislation that were central to the deprivation of black South Africans of their land, their assets, and their livelihoods".

He says the consequences of the two acts are still felt in South Africa today.