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Confiscate it and do what with it?

I’ll cede, for the sake of argument, that it’s just to give land back to the black citizens. Who will now own the land? Black citizens? Of course not: the state will. Let’s imagine that the state gives the land back to black people. Who will they give it back to? I’m sure there are plenty of black people who have been working alongside the white farm owners who would be competent, even expert farmers themselves, but how would they become the ones running the farms?

Even buying the premise that the state should enact policies that result in land being transferred from white people to black people, this is a stupid way to do it.

A smarter way would be to find some way to increase costs — such as a tax, but the tax need not be direct — on while farm owners and lower costs on black farmers. Perhaps tax the products of the farm as they are sold. Or tax the land. Or tax seasonal loans. Or tax equipment, fuel, etc. Use those taxes to subsidize black-owned farms. This would place white farmers at a competitive disadvantage, prompting them to sell to black people. (You’d, of course, need to very carefully define “ownership” so they don’t simply make a black person an owner in name only.) But the sales would take place gradually, as competent, successful black farmers earned the money to buy the farms and white farmers were ready to pursue other work. There would be significant compensation, not from the government but from black people making profit off of white people. And that compensation would be largely commensurate with the value of the land.

But this isn’t about giving white-owned farms to black people. This is pure communism, poorly disguised as racial justice. Farm output will collapse. Poverty and starvation will ensue. Worse, what industry will feel safe from redistribution? Divestment will soon destroy South Africa.

We don’t have to guess. This has been tried before. Millions of people — black people — died.