Posted on 09/01/2011 7:30:01 AM PDT by SanFranDan
FULL TITLE: Black farmers in South Africa cash in by selling land given to them by the government... back to whites who originally owned the farms
South Africa's black farmers are cashing on their once white-owned farmland - by selling it back to its original owners.
The South African government has spent a fortune trying to redistribute the country's land wealth from the white minority to the black majority.
It has bought thousands of hectares of white owned farm land and either given it or sold it on to poor blacks.
But yesterday the country's minister of land reform admitted that many of the new black farmers have simply resold the land back to the original owners.
Gugile Nkwinti said black farmers have resold nearly 30 per cent of the white farmland bought for them by the government.
He said: 'The government bought land and handed it over to aspirant farmers who then sold it again, in many instances back to the original owner.'
Land economists say that the redistribution policy is highly inefficient as the white-owned land is often bought at above its market value by the government.
After the land has been given, or sold at a discount, to the new black owner, he is able to simply then able to sell it on.
This means that both farmers - black and white - are able to turn a profit from the government's involvement.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“Government confiscates land from Whites.
Government redistributes said land to Blacks.
Blacks sell lands back to original White owners!
Reverend Manning is right about his own people. When you look at Africa you realize that its inhabitants have never progressed above basic poverty, because it requires hard work.
I made my point in my first reply to you: read before you type, dimwit...
“If the farmland wasn’t stolen from the farmers the tax money to pay them certainly was stolen from others.”
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Right.
This article claims they were paid “above market value” for the land.
I have read other articles, and seen comments from the farmers, that that was most definitely not the case.
Not to mention, that regardless of price paid, it was a coercive action.
Sort of a farm buy-back program like our gun buy-backs. Just as bright too.
True to an extent, but government can 'steal' from non-citizens as well. It seems to me, the black government did the same thing the white government did. They took the land by superior force.
The white settlers acted under government authority. Government claimed the land and then doled it out. Then business went on as usual selling and buying in private markets. When the black government took the land by force, it performed a near identical function. Now the blacks there are legally selling it to whites.
The only question I have is why are the whites buying the land back. Do they have some reasonable expectation that the government won't take it again? And if they do expect to lose the land again, do they expect to make enough profit in the interim to make it worthwhile. I have been told by a friend who lived there that white South Africa was an amazing and beautiful place.
This reminds me of some lines from Francisco d’Ancona’s “Money Speech.” (the very best part of Atlas Shrugged).
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