ANC call on land redistribution described as 'reckless'

It is amazingly reckless and geared to trying to buy the loyalty of its membership in the same way that Mugabe tried to buy loyalty from his cronies and brought Zimbabwe to ruin, once a bread-basket of Africa it is now a pityful basket-case because of precisely this kind of distorted and racist philosophy. Many SA farmers purchased their farms at a full and going market rate. They weren't just given to them by the government. There is some utter distortion of the facts being made to serve an Africanist racist agenda. You would have thought that we would use the Freedom Charter as the building block of our future nation, not blatantly prejudiced policies. So far the government land redistribution is just not working, why should more of it do better! Nobody doubts that Blacks need to be assisted to the point where they can productively contribute and reap the rewards for their labour. However, if this process is handled incorrectly then….Hello to another Zimbabwe in the making! This is the time in which White farmers, anxious about their futures, sell, leave or abandon their farms. Please note farming is one of the most difficult and demanding profession in the world. There is no easy money to be made in farming, it is a lifestyle into which generations have been born and raised in and becomes part of your blood. If you are going to make this transition/transformation work then you better not just hand out farms (or tracts of land) to your cronies but will have to provide expertise, training, capital, business support and monitoring and most importantly you had better select people who have the guts, determination & faith to make farming a success. Take a good look at most of the SA emerging farmers and they are just not making it, why should more of them necessarily do any better. I repeat, farming is the hardest career you can choose, rather choose politics then you can just become another economic parasite.

The ship has now been hi-jacked, all the pirates have got on , and we will now sail over the end of the earth. Better find a life raft soon or you will drown with it.

It is difficult to know whether government continues to make these ill-considered statements on unreconstructed ideological grounds or out of poor judgement.

Or which is worse.

The first person to comment on this article is daft. Instead of arguing on the facts, all he does is sound racist and behave like his fellow white supremacists who behave like they belong to the upper echelons of our society. The purpose of the land redistribution is not to give blacks farms, but to try to balance the inequalities of the past by making other citizens of South Africa to take part in the economic activities. Farming cannot be as difficult as this person purport, difficult as it may be, for him to make it sound like only white people can do it is just ignorance of the highest order. Its surprising that there are still people who believe that ones intellect diminishes relative to their skin color. Farming was never meant for white people only, the reason why blacks struggle is that they were marginalized by his fellow white supremacists in the past and now that we have finally reclaimed what it rightfully ours, i don't see why we cannot claim the land of our forefathers back. Its good that the ANC seeks to expedite the land reform. After all, i have never seen an environment wherein 10% of the population controls 90% of the prime land, wherein the majority of the people don't even own land.

Wow!! Strategicly so, after expropriation of land what will happen?
ANC should be very vigilant of the policies and equity transitional strategies, they are right but should check the time and the manner of executing them.

In 1913 there was only one thing in mind was to deprive Africans, but in 2009 there should be two things in mind, is equality and economy. What is the use of having high statistics of economy while the rate inequality is widening.

There is nothing wrong with this call, but the manner in which this call is executed will determine the outcomes!!

The best way to describe the situation is to learn a lesson from nature:
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

THE ORIGINAL STORY

An ant and a grasshopper live in the same field during the summer. The ant works all day and night bringing in supplies for the winter. He prepares his home to keep him warm during the cold winter months ahead.

Meanwhile the grasshopper hops and sings, eats all the grass he wants and multiplies.

Come the winter, the grass dies, it is bitterly cold. The ant is well and warm in his house, but the grasshopper has not prepared for the winter, so he, leaving a whole herd of little grasshoppers without food or shelter.

The moral of the story is that one should work hard to ensure that you could take care of yourself (that simple).


THE AFRICAN VERSION

The first part of the story is the same, but because it is in Southern Africa there are a few complications.

The starving, shivering offspring of the grasshopper demand to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed, while next door they are living in terrible conditions without food or proper clothing.

A TV crew shows up and broadcasts footage of the poor grasshoppers, contrasting this with footage of the ant, snug in his comfortable home with a pantry full of food.

The public is stunned.

How can it be, in this beautiful field, which the poor grasshoppers are allowed to suffer so, while the ant lives in the lap of luxury.

In the blink of an eye the AGU (African Grasshopper Union) is formed.

They charge the ant with a species bias and claim that the grasshoppers are the victims of 30 million years of green oppression. They stage a protest in front of the ant’s house and thrash the street.

The TV crew interviews them, and they all state that if their demands are not met they will be forced into a life of crime. Just for practice, they loot the TV crew’s luggage and hijack their van.

The TRC (Take and Redistribute Commission) justifies their behavior by saying that this is a legacy of the ant’s discrimination towards the oppression of the grasshoppers.

They demand that the ant apologises to the grasshoppers for what he has done, and makes amends for all the other ants in history that have done the same ting to the grasshoppers.

PAGAD (People Against Grasshopper Abuse and Distress) state that they are starting a holy war against ants.

The president appears on the 8 ‘o clock news and says that he will do everything he can for the grasshoppers who have been denied the prosperity they deserve by those who have benefited unfairly during the summer.

The government drafts up the EEGAD (Economic Equity or Greens And Disadvantaged) Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to employ appropriate number of green insects and having nothing left to pay his back-taxes. His home is confiscated by the government for redistribution.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing off the last of the ant’s food while the government house he’s in (which happens to be an old ant’s house) crumbles around him because he does not know how to maintain it.

Showing on the TV (which a couple of his friends stole from another ant) the president is standing before a group of wildly singing and dancing grasshoppers announcing that a new era of equality has dawned on the field.

The ant, meanwhile, is not allowed to work because has historically benefited from the field. In his place, ten grasshoppers only work two hours a day and steal half of what they actually harvest.

When the winter comes again and not enough food has been harvested, the grasshoppers strike and demand a 150% increase in their wages so that they can buy more food, which has now been imported because the grasshoppers are not productive enough to produce food locally.

The ant packs his things and moves to another field, where he starts a highly successful food business and becomes a millionaire by selling food to the field where he came from.

THE END.

To state the obvious, land is a big issue and redistribution policies based on righting historical inequities are valid. However, so is the issue of property rights in a democratic modern economy. Economic growth and all that that brings is based on the flow of capital and without assuring the property rights of capital invested, who would want to invest in a country where these are not protected by law? The dilemma for the politicians in South Africa, and their job, is to find a middle ground that ensures an equitable land redistribution policy, not just for the dispossessed but for the possessors as well, as after all they are citizens too, and in a country where the rights of the individual are intrenched in the constitution (which is a good thing) their rights are important too. Finding this middle ground is no mean feat, but perhaps the start is to acknowledge that it is the path that needs to be found. I visited Zimbabwe recently and that country is perhaps the best example of why finding the middle ground is necessary. Dispossession based on race without regard to property rights has not been a highly successful strategy and has a lot to do with Zimbabwe's economic collapse. In South Africa, the pressure is on the politicians to find an equitable solution for both interest groups without taking the easy road of just pandering to those who shout the loudest. The longer-term implications of doing this are significant.

Mr No-Name, Annon etc has clearly read into my submission that I am a racist but I never said that Blacks could not achieve great success as farmers, that would be ignorant because as at least 30% of the emerging Black farmers are making it. Unfortunately what is happening with the other 70% is that the preconditions to them being successful are not being met and they are not getting the finance, practical support & monitoring which is necessary. Only a person who has never farmed will think it easy, it is subject to droughts, diseases, market fluctuations and every kind of other business variable imaginable. But Mr Anon you are the one with the racist agenda and your submission makes that abundantly clear. You chose to read race into everything I wrote, where it didn't exist. I said that clearly adjustments need to be made but they need to be made by pragmatists not raving ideologists who may often understand the end goal but miss the plot altogether! My opinion is as follows, subject to having the same drives, motivation, principles, persistence and intent, all people can be equal but they will all need equal education, training, advice, support, financing. Anyone who misses the fact that this is a team effort for and by all South Africans has got their head firmly stuck in the sand.

Oh yes, just in case everyone has forgotten, the land belonged to the San and the Koisan and in terms of birthrights it should all be given back to them! America back to the Red Indians and Australia to the Aborigines etc! Honestly, my view it is entrusted to all of us (all...all..all of us) and we should all be appreciative a productive stewards of what God has entrusted to us. We should have it taken away if we fail to use it properly or abuse it by not using it, overexploiting or ruining it for future generations. Actually nature will take it back anyway and we will be left with a wasteland, a desert on which even insects will struggle to survive. (Note it is already happening all over the world!)

Has the ANC sorted out issues of capacity building? After these farms are taken whether willingly or not how and who will manage them?

Because we have kept quiet on inefficiency and ineffective government due to lack of skills and knowledge base; should we also condone the kind of land redistribution without clear indication as to higher levels of skills?

Hasn't South Africa learned lessons from places like India where the "untouchables" after given land under affirmative actions, without prior training and/or being equipped to run the land have been unable to utilize the land and/or resources disseminated as part of their freedom?

What has happened right next door in Zimbabwe? Do all the farmers who snatched farms from the Whites have what it takes to maintains those farms? If so, why has the economy being sliding deep down in the drains?

As much as I wouldn't mind a few hectares myself; but as for a farm for goods and produce for social benefit I wouldn't be able to manage.

I guess, if we are to embark in these stern actions we need to address pertinent issues first. This is not to mean that our people are incapable of taking over these disciplines. Its just a matter of facing the reality. Not everybody is a farmer as much as not everybody is a liar and that goes on to the fact that not everybody is racist.

Education and capacity building are critical issues that the ANC has failed to redress. This is the bottom line of our development whether we like it or not. Even Mbeki in many ways became a great president because of education. Zuma by himself won't be able to take us any further if he continues to pal-around with school drop outs and rowdy crowds.

I don't know about the land that belongs to the San and Khoi people. Who's history was that? For whom? Are we referring to the same history written by the same colonists that were trying for centuries to undo the existence of the general population of indigenous people of South Africa? It was good that I paid attention at school to be where I am. I strongly believe in the fact that we are all equitable by virtue of being human beings. But, that I have gone to school; rather still read and learn, I shall not take every pill given to me to satisfy racist remarks that spurn out from some of our counterparts from time to time.

It is a fact that the general African population in South Africa has been there as long as ever, that San and Khoi were designated as the innate/original people could just be a ploy to snatch pride and honor from the larger existing groups of people. Alienation of oneself from one's environment and origin in order for one not to feel comfortable or make any claims.

There is so much wrong about African history. It is screwed up as long as the continent became colonized. Moreover, it is a fact that affluence is still narrowly spread amongst minority groups. Should we snatch the wealth from them? No! Should we condone their racists claims that we are not legitimate people of this country? No!

The least we could do as we are all human beings who on this day find themselves in this beautiful land is to reason to live. Racists bickering will never take us anywhere and the bottom line is that we are all yearning for democracy for our own well being and livelihood.