Posted on 10/15/2006 3:41:40 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
EAST LONDON, South Africa (Reuters) - The South African government has issued new orders to seize land from a small number of white farmers who were not willing to settle apartheid-era land disputes with dispossessed blacks, the nation's agriculture and land affairs minister said.
Minister Lulu Xingwana has said her department would only hold price negotiations for six months with whites who own land taken from blacks during white minority rule. If talks failed, officials would take steps to seize the land.
She said wrangling over prices had in the past often taken years, frustrating officials who are under pressure to speed up the transfer of land to blacks in order to correct the skewed land ownership created under white rule.
"I must say, yes, the majority of white farmers have turned around and come to the table and are offering to sell land to support government restitution, but there are hard-nosed ones and we are dealing with that right now," she told reporters on Friday.
Xingwana said that the government was issuing seizure orders to four white farmers in Bela-Bela, located in South Africa's northern Limpopo province, who had failed to reach settlements within six months of being notified that they must do so.
South Africa has promised to put a third of the commercial farming sector in black hands by 2014, but 12 years after the fall of apartheid only 4 percent of the industry belongs to the black majority.
Restitution is part of this drive, allowing blacks to apply to have their rights to land taken from them restored or to seek financial compensation from the government.
Xingwana's six-month ultimatum has fuelled an already politically explosive issue -- especially in a region where memories still linger of the often-violent seizures of white land in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
South Africa has rejected any comparison with the turmoil that surrounded Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution program in the late 1990s.
Xingwana's office has blamed white farmers for delaying the redistribution plan by demanding exorbitant prices for their property. Farmers say their rates are market-related and blame government inefficiency for holding up the process.
South Africa has stressed that its land programme will be orderly and that farmers will be allowed full legal recourse.
Local law allows the minister to seize land without a court order, but farmers may appeal to the courts if they think the claim on land is invalid.
Asked if the new co-operative spirit she has noticed may soon make seizures unnecessary, Xingwana said: "If there is 100 percent goodwill. I don't know when that day will come."
"Where there is recalcitrance, we have no choice."
This one is going to be a mess to sort out. Racist policies cannot be used to correct previous racist policies but people who were denied property rights by the fomer government are going to be owed something.
Zimbabwe II. Maybe it's time for the evil white farmers to get out and let the poor peaceful blacks peacefully starve to death on their own.
What folly.
The South African government has become too Utopian for its own good and now millions of South African Blacks will starve, if this land grab policy is implemented.
Perhaps, the Apartheid Government should have not seized the land of blacks in the first place.
"South Africa has promised to put a third of the commercial farming sector in black hands by 2014, but 12 years after the fall of apartheid only 4 percent of the industry belongs to the black majority."
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Well, why?
But still, they still have eight years to throw the white folks out.
And who is this "South Africa" who is doing the promising?
Inquiring minds want to know why.
If we had sane immigration policy we would allow any white farmer and family to immigrate here and build a two thousand mile fence to keep illegal Mexicans out. Mexico has had it too good for too long. Get some S Africans in here instead and let SA go 100% Black and 100% down the toilet
True enough, but the possession of the land is not the only issue, the productivity of the land needs to be maintained. The white farmers need to sell their land but also train the new comers on how to use it . Thats the point being stupidly missed. The racism behind the policy of buy out is apparent, because the whites have a very valuable knowledge that the new "owners" will need to assure that starvation will not ensue. There should be more of a partnership transfer with white farmers retaining their homes and receiving mortgage payments subsidized by the government for a time , so that their expertise can be passed on to the new black owners.
That will not happen and the results will be catastrophic. Thats what I mean by Utopian, I do not quibble with the ideology so much as what the functional blindness is.
The same thing could happen in the United States if it is declared that the seizure of white land would have a positive economic benefit for the community.
It's already happening here.
The South African government has become too Marxist for its own good.
Marxism and racism make a particularly poor mix, as in Rhodesia.
Either one is bad enough; the media is pushing the mix, and then trying to get us to pay for the results.
Aha! Nothing like historical justice. Present day white farmers in SA had little to do with taking the land from the native population. And a comparable land return without the expertise will cause mass starvation in an otherwise land of plenty?
Stupidity has many faces. And the South African government wears one of them. All in the name of the same historical justice which puts politics ahead of function. It is the same reason why South Africa is in the throws of an AIDS epidemic. (The white mans ways must go with him). Then watch the children die.
Why not just enroll interested young Africians of all races in ag programs? How about internship programs and low cost loans for those who are interested in getting into the business? Or helping to set up cooperatives and other legal small farming opportunities so one can work up to larger farm ownership.
Let it come naturally instead of forcing it to happen, and SA will be much better off.
Have you ever heard of eminent domain, or do you live in a cave on the moon?
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