Politic?

Land Reform in South Africa : Proceed With Caution

We are making history and celebrating the return of your land today. We are righting the historic injustice and returning the land to its rightful owners; [the country’s constitution will be changed to explicitly allow for the expropriation of land without compensation for return of around 4,500 hectares, the first of a number of land claims] that we aim to unlock over the next few months."

"Any failure on our part to reverse the injustices of our past... will result in social instability and economic decline in our country. This we cannot afford."
"As the government, we concede that much more could have been done since 1994 to accelerate land reform. This government is resolute in our commitment to returning the land in an orderly and lawful manner. We shall not allow illegal land occupations."
"The intention of the proposed amendment is to promote redress, advance economic development, increase agricultural production and food security."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

"We are currently in a consultation process where South Africans are participating in a process of review — we have actually taken the time to participate in this process — and this announcement by the governing party serves only to undermine the process under way."
"SA needs more black farmers and black farms. Constitutional amendments — and even worst-case expropriation without compensation — may make for good electioneering but it doesn’t make more black farmers."
"[President Ramaphosa’s announcement was] irresponsible electioneering and the leaders of our country should be more vigilant and responsible when it comes to the future of the economy and job creation for all South Africans … We are a full and active participant in the upcoming ANC jobs summit — this position will not encourage us to invest in the sector to create more jobs."
AgriSA president Dan Kriek

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (L) hands over the title land deeds to Inkosi (Chief ) Mand

"[Expropriation without compensation and economic growth] are diametrically contrasted — and nowhere in the world has this worked in any shape or form. Agrarian reform can only happen successfully working hand-in-hand, in partnership, with the private sector."
"We have seen this movie play out all over world — Venezuela, Russia — the promise for emerging farmers of tools, fertiliser, seeds and extension services are superficial; many have promised this as election ploys — and yet the outcome is always catastrophic for agriculture and food security."
Omri van Zyl, executive director, AgriSA.

"[Ramaphosa’s announcement shows that the ANC has been] forced to listen to ordinary South Africans across the country who have attended public hearings and who have said: 'We want land and we feel the government has not listened to us'."
"People have blamed the Constitution for the government’s inaction over the land issue. I think we are going to head into a new phase now where government is going to be forced to take the land issue much more seriously."
Professor Ruth Hall, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape

Picture: JOHN FEDELE

The situation is never as simple as taking the straight-cut initiative without considering ramifications that will ensue as a result of hasty action irrespective of consequences. Who should own the land in any country but its original inhabitants? In South Africa as in other once-colonized African countries up to 70% of the geography is held by whites in a black nation. Colonization has never quite departed the scene; as civilized societies a declaration of independence and self-rule did not include nationalization of properties confiscated by blacks for white ownership.

But there is yet another truth, that as stewards of the land that white colonialists wrested by force of occupation from the indigenous population, the land has been put to good use. When Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe turned his country around from white ownership of the majority of agrarian land, authorizing Zimbabweans who had fought alongside him in its war of independence from white Europeans who named it Rhodesia, violent occupations took place and people were killed. But the upshot of forcibly removing generations of white farmers from their productive farms that fell into the hands of blacks who had no knowledge of farming, no interest in growing crops was disastrous.

The once-thriving economy of an African agricultural-producing giant able to export what its internal use found excessive to their needs resulted, under occupation, in arable fields lying fallow, leading to the need to import food, and inflation soared, the economy sank, unemployment exploded and its currency became worthless. A more recent example of social engineering carried out by ignoramuses is Venezuela where neglect of its infrastructure and celebration of a socialist 'Bolivarian revolution' led to the collapse of the economy, malnutrition, food and medical shortages, massive unemployment and millions migrating out of the country.

South Africans stand now prepared to continue the burial of apartheid by reclaiming South Africa for its indigenous black population. Since the end of apartheid and the departure of Nelson Mandela from its leadership, his successors have, one after the other, mismanaged the economy, failed to support the needs of the greater population living in poverty and neglect, failed to build housing, to increase opportunities for greater economic equality and employment and now faces the demand of its population to reclaim its geographical heritage.

Homeless squatters are now being organized by groups opposing the ANC and its failures, to enter restricted areas owned by white farmers, to put up huts and claim their right to live there, infuriating the farmers and raising the spectre of violent encounters. Where white farmers don't own the land their farms sit on outright, they rent on public land, locked into 50-year leases signed for white farmers by local authorities in the early 1990s at the tail end of apartheid. "We see that land, we must take that land", said activist Zola Ndlasi, 44, leader of a takeover.

The failure of the African National Congress to provide access to black South Africans to land for the black majority has left a taste of betrayal. An ANC program to buy out land from willing white farmers saw politicians ending up with more land than was required by those citizens who were meant to benefit from the exchange. The Economic Freedom Fighters, a spinoff of the ANC, tapped into this frustration to call on black South Africans to proceed with taking land themselves rather than wait for the government to act.

ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa, mindful of voting trends, plans to alter the Constitution for expropriation of land without compensation to proceed. Yet commented in January: "We are not going to allow land grabs in South Africa", with an eye to avoiding international condemnation. A judge ordered squatters on one wine-producing vineyard to vacate the farm, despite which the shacks remain and the decision is under appeal with the municipality negotiating with the farmer to buy the plot on which the shacks sit.

In Stellenbosch, the wine region of South Africa, a black township called Kayamandi is bursting with a swiftly accumulating population abutting several wineries. New residents arrive daily from impoverished Eastern Cape Province, a steady migration of desperation that has made black South Africans the largest racial group in Stellenbosch, outnumbering whites and mixed race groups. Their dire need for housing in this crowded corner of South Africa has led them to face off with white farmers by erecting huts on farm property.

According to a local law, squatters cannot be evicted without a court order once they have lived in those shacks for two days or longer. "If I build a house, then I will leave this for my children", said 20-year-old Lubabalo Mpiliso as his shack was being ripped apart and he resisted, unwilling to return to the two-bedroom government house he had shared with ten relatives. The arrival of black newcomers to Kayamandi who may not vote for the incumbents at City Hall has local politicians loathe to support them, pointing out the squatters are leaping ahead of people waiting for housing.

In one plot on one farm close to a thousand shacks were spread out, leading the municipality to install two water taps. An earlier such occupation in a steep valley established in 2005, has become a dangerously overcrowded shantytown with few toilets and no electrical connections nearby. "We need land, we took land" reads signage some of the protesters carry. The landowner began receiving messages: "They said they'll burn me alive", he said.