New policy is land redistribution by Andile Mngxitama
AFTER 15 years of incompetence bordering on the criminal, the ministry of land affairs under the leadership of Minister Lulu Xingwana has turned the tables. Xingwana has shown admirable determination and a no- nonsense attitude towards land-owners who don’t use the land productively and has instructed her officials to implement the “use it or lose it ” policy immediately. This is such a breath of fresh air. For years the landless and civil society have been calling for this policy. Unfortunately, Xingwana’s newfound decisiveness actually has nothing to do with the white land-owners who occupy more than 80% of the land, the majority of which is massively underutilised, badly used or simply held for speculative purposes. The minister is now doing land redistribution in reverse. The new policy applies only to the 5% of land given to black people in the past 15 years. Black beneficiaries are going to lose land for failure to use it “productively” – and no one is talking compensation. The track record of the ministry of land affairs is appalling, to be polite. That department has only done one thing well: defending the property rights of white land-owners. How else do we account for the fact that while the Reconstruction and Development Programme promised that 30% of land would be redistributed between 1994 and 1999, in 15 years only 5% has been redistributed? At this pace we’ll need more than a 100 years to deliver 30% of the land. How does the minister account for the fact that more than one million farm dwellers have been evicted from land since 1994 – and we’re still counting? In fact, if we subtract the land access lost by farm dwellers from the 5% redistributed we can see that massive land dispossession has occurred side-by-side with snail-paced land reform since 1994. Beneficiaries of land reform have been set up for failure and now they are blamed and punished for failing. Firstly, government and white farmers have been the key advisers to these communities directly and through influence over land policy. It’s the “expertise” of the overpaid white managers of farms given to blacks that has contributed to these massive failures. Secondly, the support has been so inadequate that failure was always guaranteed. Thirdly, the agriculture sector is skewed against new black farmers. The practice of mimicking the racist, corrupt, profit-obsessed monoculture and environmentally harmful agriculture model inherited from apartheid is key to explaining the failures of beneficiaries. It must never be forgotten that the South Africa agricultural sector is based on slavery, violence and super-exploitation of farmworkers on the one hand and massive subsidies which have accumulated over the apartheid years. To simply throw the new black land-owners into this colonial agriculture model without the same conditions that ensured success for white farmers is to parade ignorance of the sector. Our government has been pushing the colonial model down the throats of beneficiaries, even forcing partnership with previous land-owners. The European Union and the US provide massive subsidies for their farmers and protect their markets. Any serious nation should be investing massively in its farmers and protecting them. White farmers benefited from the apartheid model, hence their success, which is based on an evil agricultural model. Black farmers have been abandoned to the mercies of the very white land-owners who don’t give a toss for the food security of the nation – they are chasing profits. In the grip of hunger and high food prices the agricultural sector clocked amazing profits. We need to dismantle the apartheid land and agricultural structure to feed the nation. However, the current minister and her officials are not the best people to undertake such a task. Mngxitama is a land rights activist and co-editor of Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Groups "Pan Africanist Youth Congress of Azania" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/payco Visit our website at www.geocities.com/paycoonline //panafricanist.blogspot.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
