Seizure order on SA white farm

brother · Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:56 am Post subject:

I really don't know what to feel on this one, the white farmers bought the land legally then he is being forced to sell, but the blacks suffered apartheid which stopped them from buying or owning the lands, really confusing issue.

garbitsch · Mukhtar/is Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 767 Location: Cyprus

I guess this is what they call "reversed apartheid".

cannedmoose · Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:19 pm Post subject:

The problem is not the land redistribution itself, but the way in which it is carried out. Yes, the white land owners are in that position because of the colonial past, however, many of them provide employment and good conditions for those working on their lands. The large size of these farms has also produced a system of efficient, industrial-scale farming, which cannot be replicated by smallholders.

A badly-managed system, like that in Zimbabwe has produced two major effects - loss of employment for hundreds of thousands of farm-workers; and the total shutdown of farm production, with the result that one of the most fertile countries on earth is now teetering on the edge of starvation.

If South Africa manages this correctly, i'm all in favour. But it requires the following things to be in place:

The white farmers should be compensated for the market value of their land, the market value of their farm equipment and also compensated for the business value therein.

The land should be offered to collectives rather than individuals, so as to retain the scale of farms as they currently exist.

Current owners should be employed as advisors for a limited period in order to advise the new owners on the best methods of farming, how to use the machinery etc.

None of the requisitioned land should be allowed to be given to cronies of any politicians (as has happened in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe's friends and relatives have been given the best lands).

It should be done slowly, so as to test the effects of redistribution and make a slow transition.

It should not take place in areas where redistribution would prove to be unsustainable. Any policy demanding that all white-owned farms must be given over, would be racist in itself.