Posted on 02/13/2007 6:39:13 PM PST by blam
South Africa in first land grab
By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg
Last Updated: 1:43am GMT 14/02/2007
South Africa has expropriated the country's first farm under its land reform programme aimed at returning agricultural land taken from black communities during the apartheid era, officials said yesterday.
The South African Evangelical Lutheran Church, owners of the large farm in the Northern Cape Province, have been ordered to sell it for 35.5 million rand (about £2.5 million).
The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights said the farm had been expropriated to meet the claim by locals, including several who worked there, that their families had been forcibly removed from the land under apartheid.
The seizure took effect on Jan 26, marking the latest phase in the highly contentious issue of land reform.
South Africa's ANC government has been criticised for the slow pace of its land reform programme and lengthy court procedures.
Anxious to avoid the chaos which accompanied the forced seizure of agricultural land in neighbouring Zimbabwe, the Restitution Commission attempts to work on a willing-seller, willing-buyer principal before ordering expropriation. If, after a long legal process, the current owners refuse to sell, they are forced to do so.
The government said it wants 30 per cent of land that was in white hands at the end of apartheid transferred to black ownership by 2015.
It is seeking to achieve this by buying farms from white owners and returning them to black communities that have successfully established that their land was taken under apartheid or colonial laws.
. . . none are so blind, etc. etc.
Mandela's Paradise..
Brilliant! They looked at Zimbabwe, saw how well this plan worked out there, and now want to emulate it!
It's a scary thought, but the concept of a white minority ruling the black majority with an iron hand is looking better and better the longer the black majority is in control. At least 10% of the population was living well, and that's certainly a whole lot better than Zimbabwe can claim these days. Going from 90% of the people being miserable to 100% isn't progress, no matter what the racial breakdown. I guess it fits with the basic ideology of socialism, though, that poverty and misery are not a problem as long as EVERYBODY is poor and miserable.
Sounds like some parts of America...
While I share your sentiments about eminent domain abuse in the US, it's hardly comparable to what's going on in Zimbabwe and now South Africa. In the US, these seizures are done only when they can reasonably be expected to result in substantial economic output from the property in question. Sure, the legitimate owners may get financially (and personally) screwed, but the policy is hardly going to result in national economic ruin, no matter how many times it's done. National spiritual ruin, yes, but not economic ruin.
Some portion of the land controlled by whites in these countries was in realistic terms acquired by means of what we would normally call theft.
That's the theory, all right. The reality is that those in control of the government always do quite well, while everybody else sinks into misery.
Are you in favor of returning Alabama to the Cherokees?
. . . the guarantee of private property rights has a ripple effect. The owners of the large commercial farms are obviously at the top of the heap, but the surrounding smallholders and all the workers who get steady jobs from the prosperity have to be taken into account as well. Envy of the rich results in nothing but misery (and transfer of the wealth directly into the pockets of the demagogues, who ship it out to Switzerland where it has a ripple effect for Swiss bankers instead of farmworkers' families.)
Well, it will never be more than 99% because the 1% of top level bureaucrat-bandits in any socialist state always live extraordinarily well.
Actually, the history of South Africa is that the Zulus came down from further north, after having been displaced by other tribes, at about the same time that the Dutch settlers arrived from the sea. I believe the Xhosa also came from outside the area. The original inhabitants were bushmen, and I believe habitation was sparse. So it was not colonized in the same way as most other countries in South Africa.
I don't know how much it matters.
I was thinking of South Africa. IIRC the white population is about 10% (not sure about that though).
I do notice that the "garb land" crowd is complaining about the pace of the theft, so soon enough even the reasonable provisions will be jettisoned and the outright theft will begin.
It may be better to take the offer and leave the country before the outright theft happens.
It won't take that long.
I'm ever the optimist.
I think we've seen this sequence of events before.
Accelerated expropriation of farmland->Food shortages->Famine->Blame Whitey->Economic Collapse->US Taxpayer Provides Aid->Money Used to Buy Weapons->Civil War->Blame Whitey->Annual Coup D'etat for the forseeable future->Stil Blaming Whitey->etc etc
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