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| Africa: Subsaharan | |
| S African white farm to be seized | |
| 2005-09-23 | |
| South Africa says it will for the first time force a white farmer to sell his land under a redistribution plan. The decision was announced by the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, set up to return to black people land lost under apartheid. An official said talks to agree on a price for the farm had failed and the farmer has vowed to challenge the move. South Africa's government says it wants to hand over about a third of white-owned farm land by 2014. The commission on Thursday said an expropriation notice would be served on Hannes Visser, the owner of a cattle and crop farm in North West province. The government offered to buy the 500-hectare (1,250-acre) farm for $275,000 but Mr Visser said it was worth almost twice as much. Mr Visser told the South African news agency Sapa he intended to fight the decision in court. "Should the courts turn out to be my final recourse, I will go that route," he said. The government argues that Mr Visser's father bought the land from a black farmer through a forced transaction in 1968. Regional land claims commissioner Blessing Mphela said the seizure was a last resort. But he added that South Africa must speed up land reform or face chaos. Eighty per cent of agricultural land is owned by white South Africans, who make up only 10% of the population - the legacy of apartheid laws. Since coming to power in 1994, the current government has adopted a "willing buyer, willing seller" approach to land redistribution, paying market prices for land that white owners are prepared to sell, and then distributing it to landless blacks. But Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says the pace of reform should be speeded up - as in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where most white-owned land has been seized by the state. "There needs to be a bit of oomph. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us," she said.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #21 However unprepared the USA and its Allies are, its clear many of the African nations wish to organize themselves along the lines of the Euro Common Market or NAFTA, and are working to achieve it. Despite the WOT, any surreal threat of new 9-11's, the USA and our Allies can't afford to let our guard down and lose Africa to Radical Islam or Communism. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-09-23 23:42 |
| #20 SM, I did not mean to imply that the Native African population in SA will be able see the overall stupidity of this. Granted some will and and when things go to hell in a hand basket I hope they had the brains to get out along with any of the remaining whites still there. And yes ZF part of the problem in Africa is in the old colonial boundries still in use today. But I don't see any movement on the part of the different countries to change that. |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2005-09-23 18:08 |
| #19 ZF, you re-created the Austro-Hungarian Empire there, and we all know what happened to that. I think you're exactly right -- the Euros screwed the Africans once by coming and again by leaving. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-09-23 15:05 |
| #18 ZF, the only thing you missed is that your scenario DID happen in Europe. I offer for your viewing pleasure, Yugoslavia! (Not to mention Czechaslovakia, but, they split into their two tribes amicably) |
| Posted by: AlanC 2005-09-23 14:50 |
| #17 Zhang Fei, you are spot on (as is usually the case). IMAO it seems that there is only enough room for one tribe in each "empire." Federalism would be a healthy concept for African nations to embrace but I think it very unlikely that they will. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-09-23 14:15 |
| #16 SM: Itâs not racism in the sense we think of it. Instead itâs all about tribalism. Tribalism = nationalism. The problem was that the European powers gave their conquered territories independence based on imperial administrative structures instead of the original boundary lines between different nations when they showed up. Each African country is in effect, an empire dominated by one nation trying to keep the other nations under its thumb. Imagine if Africans had gone to Europe and welded Austria, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary into an administrative unit, and subsequently made them independent, but as a single country. Each region would constantly be fighting with the others. Imagine if - after the Cold War - the Soviets had let their East European satellites regain their sovereignty, but as a single country. That is what happened in Africa. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-09-23 13:51 |
| #15 S African white farm to be seized So it begins. The lights have gone out in Africa, and we shall not see them re-lit in our lifetime. |
| Posted by: N guard 2005-09-23 13:08 |
| #14 Cheaderhead: They don't care about "the skills and talent that population represents." They simply donât think that way. To these people Robert Mugabe is a hero and Zimbabwe is a total success, even though this makes absolutely no sense to us. Why? Itâs not racism in the sense we think of it. Instead itâs all about tribalism. Look at Zimbabwe. Bob is Shona. The first thing the Shona did after the revolution (that got rid of Rhodesia) was kill off the Ndebele. They only live in Bulawayo now. Only after that tribe was driven out, massacred, or geographically contained did Bob turn his attention to the next tribe: the whites. Now there are only 30,000 of them left and dropping. This is a total success in all regards as the Shona now control Zimbabwe. Africans donât do âmulti-culturalismâ if they can possibly help it. Failed states? Famine? Crime? None of the people currently in power in South Africa care about these things even a little. You might as well be speaking in Chinese to them. First the Zulu and Xhosa will work together to get rid of the remaining Boers. Doesnât really matter to them how they do it. Drive them out, murder them all; whatever, so long as they are gone. Then the black South Africans will go to work on the âEnglishâ South Africans in the cities. When they are done with them the Zulu will turn on the Xhosa. After the Zulu are done exterminating the Xhosa they will polish off all of the remaining smaller tribes until they achieve total success themselves! |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-09-23 13:03 |
| #13 But mojo, this time it's the right racism. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-09-23 13:01 |
| #12 Blatant racisim, anyone? SA has a big supply... |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-09-23 12:31 |
| #11 Did the native African poluations get screwed by the colonial European powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries? Sure they did. But its not like they are they only people on Earth who ever got overrun, conquered or dominated by another group or culture. But while the quality of the colonial governments varied with the Belgians most likely the worse to the Brits being on the top of the heap (the Dutch Boers are a special case IMO) they were racist incursions into different culture/s. But the colonial powers also left something behind. A system of laws and justice (although inadequately practiced) along with other legacies. But at the same time reverse racism is not going to solve Africa's problems. If the Zimbob'sway practice of land seizures continues in SA then the white farmers and soon the white population in general will go from being stake holders in a society to outcasts in that society. And Africa can ill afford to lose the skills and talent that population represents. Just my $.02 |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2005-09-23 11:58 |
| #10 Stuck on Stupid aren't they? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2005-09-23 11:57 |
| #9 Looks like that dreaded disease Zimbobwiean Stupiditices is contagous. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-09-23 11:45 |
| #8 $220 an Acre for a developed farm,that's a deliberate insult designed to ne rejected so they can force him out. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2005-09-23 11:22 |
| #7 South Africa: Population: 44,344,136 Population growth rate: -0.31% (2005 est.) Total fertility rate: 2.24 children born/woman (2005 est.) HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 21.5% (2003 est.) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 5.3 million (2003 est.) HIV/AIDS - deaths: 370,000 (2003 est.) Combine a low birth rate (for Africa) with the fourth highest AIDS rate, highest AIDS deaths, and highest murder rate in the world and South Africa has seriously fooked itself. Rank Order - HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate |
| Posted by: ed 2005-09-23 11:04 |
| #6 Cut off all food aid to any country practicing such racism, right, Jesse? Sanctions and no aid! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-09-23 10:54 |
| #5 Population control at it's finest. I'll be happy to send some visas to all the "hardworking" white farmers in Zimbabwe and SA and let them come to the States. Plenty of farmland and opprotunity for hardworking non-racist folks here. The Dark Continent can starve. Lord knows Europe can't help you anymore and we would be fools to try. |
| Posted by: Rightwing 2005-09-23 10:35 |
| #4 Unless the nations of Africa want to go back to pre-colonization levels of population subsistence farming just ain't gonna cut it. That sounds like a good solution to me. Don't forget AIDS and the coming flu pandemic. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-09-23 10:10 |
| #3 I be glad to come down and lend my expertise. For a small fee of course. Ya can't just get expereince like mine. Lookin forwid to it. Ita give me sumthin to do. Lemme know. |
| Posted by: Farmin B. Hard 2005-09-23 09:40 |
| #2 "...we may need the skills of Zimbabwe..." Unbelievable. F'ing unbelievable. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2005-09-23 09:10 |
| #1 Next year the headlines will read "South Africa facing starvation as harvest fails". Unless the nations of Africa want to go back to pre-colonization levels of population subsistence farming just ain't gonna cut it. |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2005-09-23 08:59 |