They should have sown and harvested their own crops. Importing blacks to do the work was a mistake.
It is more complicated than that; the Dutch settlers of much of South Africa settled there because the land wasn’t populated. Years later, people migrating down the southwest coast of Africa were entering their lands; the Dutch had to deal with them. It wasn’t slavery.
Not a defense of apartheid; just a clarification.
We should have sown and harvested our own cotton.