Stolen Land

One of the biggest debates is South Africa are the redistribution of land, Where the newly elected majority claim that their land were stolen by the apartheid government.

We sit with different views and different approaches to the solution of the problem, the ANC government with the current view of willing buyer and willing seller, the EFF (economic Freedom Fighters) believing that the farm land must just be occupied Zimbabwe style and given to the majority, and then the Farmers who is absolutely prepared to discuss redistribution with a fair price to allow the farmer and their families to relocate of even buy other farms in Africa.

Both the ANC and the EFF have a huge flaw in their approach towards redistribution and their views of the history of the land ownership.

Firstly the ANC believe that the courts should handle redistribution according to the laws of the country and that the land should be bought up by the government, becoming government property allowing black empowered farmers to farm these lands. One of the major flaws in this system is the land ownership and the ability of the new owner to trade freely on the property.

The EFF who believe that land must just be occupied have exactly the same problem with a different face, if occupation is not recognised by the law the economic freedom of the new owner become zero and the value of the land will now be measured on the principle of the strongest survive. Where the occupier of today will only remain in power of the land till a new stronger group decide to occupy the farm, the financial value of the land will therefore be zero.

Both these systems of redistribution exclude the new owner from free trade and especially bank assistance, causing the new empowered business to be born dead, relying on government subsidies. During the past 20 years we saw the government building houses for the previously disadvantage allowing them to rent it from government, at no point did any of these beneficiaries became legal owners of the property and therefore at no point did they benefit economically from these project. The only winner was the government who improved and redistribute land to themselves.

Why does government not allow these people to own the land?

The answer to this is reasonably simple, if the black majority have land they will become part of the opposition, they will become part of the property owners in South Africa, part of the people that will resist Nationalization of property. As soon as the majority become economically empowered they will not vote for a promise any longer, they will not allow a corrupt government to rule and steal their property any longer. Keeping the masses without education and without basic property right where they are still dependant on government, ensure them that the people will keep the corrupt government in power.

The EFF are currently using the slow transformation to their advantage, they rally thousands of potential voters to occupy land illegally to ensure that these people will rather vote for them. Due to the fact that they rely on the poorly educated voters to empower their personal cause, they need to destroy the real history of land ownership in South Africa without any questions. They need an audience that do not ask intelligent questions, like how can I be economically free under your rule, if you believe in Nationalization. How can I be empowered if all the major business excludes me from ownership due your Nationalization policies of these businesses?

The potential voters fail to ask both the ANC and the EFF, how does BEE helps me if the system only changes the white ruler with a black ruler? How can you lead us to success if both your leader are accused of corruption, corruption not against the white rulers of yesterday, but corruption against us.

The EFF fails to tell their people that pre-apartheid trade did exist; they fail to acknowledge that the majority of white farmers bought their property from black leader and that those farms cannot be classified as stolen property. They fail to explain that their ancestors did not farm and were quite willing to sell the unused land to the White Afrikaners arriving in the land. They fail to explain that the crops that are growing on these farms are not indigenous it has been imported with the colonialist farmers.

This failure of recognising and acknowledging trade History is absolutely not because they did not know, it is due to the fact that this history will remove the power from them, it will disable their violent rallies through the streets. They will not be able to whip the crowd up with things like “they stole your land”.

Like I said in a previous post once a terrorist or violent protester always a violent leader, neither the ANC nor the EFF can rule a peaceful country, they need the violence, they need people to rally behind their violent causes, and they need a country that is always at the brink of civil war.

In conclusion the resolution of redistribution of farm land that is currently on the table is and will remain a failure as long as it is driven by emotions and not by viable economic logic. The voters and masses will only benefit if the government allow them to become economically free, they do not benefit from BEE or any of these systems. BEE is designed to empower the minority of black people in South Africa. Lastly Empowered people do not vote for corrupt governments.

I welcome your views on this matter.

Willie Beetge