Well written article. I visited South Africa and Zimbabwe last year. The contrast and actions of the two countries were huge. South Africa had a vibrant economy and working class population. Meanwhile in Zimbabwe there was starvation and unemployment, the result of land seizure and white persecution/flight. How South Africa can look at what the land seizure and destruction of both jobs and production has caused is both foolish and unrealistic. Owning land just to be owning it does not produce wealth unless you can make it productive. Taking the land from people who have poured in the resources to make it productive and giving it to people who, without resources, will allow it to sit and lose productivity is bad for the nation’s economy.
I’ve heard how Zimbabwe has forced out their white farmers. They have forcibly taken their land and given it to blacks who don’t know the first thing about farming.
Zimbabwe used to be able to feed themselves and export food products to the rest of the world. Now, in spite of having such productive farmland, they are begging for foreign aid to feed themselves.
What happened there is a good example of racism. Black nationalist government forces out whites, to give land to blacks who don’t know what they are doing. They set up a situation in which their own people go hungry, all to make a half assed black power political statement.
And the same may become the fate of South Africa in the future.
Wise governments understand that if they want to make their nation (and eventually, themselves) wealthy they have to let their most talented citizens become wealthy, also.
African politicians, just like American Democrats, want to become wealthy now by looting and crushing their potential rivals, whatever the negative impact may be on the society as a whole.