Apparently 100 years ago the devil came to town and the whites stole the land from the blacks. This might seem to be a true underdog story, especially if it were true. However it is only a matter of convenience to stir up emotions and push through a politically motivated agenda.
See- here is the thing. If we decide that 1913 was the D-day for black people to lose their land, the logical assumption would be that up until 1913 everything was cool. So then let us go back another 15 years and give back the land to the people as it was in 1898…
Oh CRAP! The Frees State and Transvaal was still Boer republics in those days! Yes, before the real landgrabbers, the Royal house of Imperialism, stole two republics from the Boers in the Anglo-Boer war, the Boers were in charge of that land…
Okay, so now all of the land reform supporters will go- Yes, but in that period land was also stolen from the blacks… Fine- Let’s go back, not 100 years, but 400 years. Then the only people left with a claim are the Koi-San people. All the other black groups came here after that. (Oh Crap?)
Why don’t we go back even further and give the people of Green-Peace a day to remember by giving the land back to the animals? They were here before man, so it is only fair. (And I know somebody is going to remark on this about baboons and monkeys running the country… You sharpshooters, you)
Let us go back even further and say- hey, God made the earth so it belongs to Him and His children, the believers, so, all you atheists hit the road!
The point I am trying to make is that the past is hard to rectify, especially if you are mixing it up with a bit of a political, racial agenda. 1913 is the date that fits the current government’s ideology. Another group can choose another date and we will have a different picture. If government was serious about land reform and food security, there are a thousand other ways, to this thing. Commercial white farmers have said they are willing to come to the table to find solutions. Yet government are ignoring them. This only proves that it is not about the people or the land, it is about the government.
I have two sons. If one is crying about a toy the other one is playing with, and you grab the toy and give it to the one crying, you will find, strangely enough, the other one will now start to cry (which is usually followed by kicking, biting and choking). This is the best plan government can make. Grab from one group, because another group is crying? It is a stupid plan.
If government is planning to use 1913 as an excuse to grab land from people who rightfully own it, the only logical conclusion is that they want to put South-Africa back a hundred years or more…
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