South African president Matamela C. Ramaphosa
recently announced that his government will expropriate land and redistribute.
After taking over from scandal-plagued former president, Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa
took a bold step aimed at decolonising land distribution and ownership in South
Africa. If anything, Ramaphosa’s move differentiates him from his precursors.
For, taking on land issues, Ramaphosa has decided to plod where many hate to.
His move, however being long overdue, is welcome to many landless South
Africans.
Talking about land expropriation is one thing
and doing it rightly is another. Considering Tanzania’s same move in 1967–under
the Arusha Declaration when the late Mwl Julius Nyerere decided to nationalise
all means of production including land–South Africa has somewhere to turn to
and learn. When Nyerere nationalised all means of production, he did it even-handedly.
For example, Nyerere didn’t allocate any parcel or mammon to himself, his
bootlickers, courtiers or the members of his family and friends. Underscoring
the sensitivity of the matter, president Ramaphosa was quoted as saying that “the
ANC has always taken care to seek to manage the economy of our country in a way
that will advance the interest of our people.”
By looking at the steps and the manner
Tanzania took, Ramaphosa needs to be cagey to make sure that his move is not
coming a cropper as it was in the neighbouring Zimbabwe where land was used to
reward loyalty. Land is a God-given wherewithal for everybody; and is very critical
for human existence and identification among others. For Africans especially,
land has inimitable spiritual connotation. It belongs to the living and the dead.
Hence, the redistribution of land needs to underscore many things such as its
centrality to human life.
Many indigenous South Africans lost their
land after the Boers and British invaded and colonised South Africa. For many years, the invaders have owned and
used the grabbed land to produce whereas rightful owners became squatters the
very invaders used as cheap labours. Considering this, expropriating land
without redress makes sense. What for shall the invaders be reimbursed if they
grabbed the very land, owned and used the very land for tens of years? If justice
were to be applied as raw as it is, they’re supposed to be forced to pay
interests for the entire time they illegally owned and used the land. Though,
there’s no need of embarking on punitive justice. Equally, white South Africans
must accept a give-and-take setting by willingly relinquishing the land they grabbed,
owned and used illegally.
Essentially, land expropriation without recompense
in South Africa is one of the ways of bringing the closure to the injustices
millions of indigenous South Africans have suffered for many years. Natural and
social justice attests to this. Knowing how justice has to guide the process, Ramaphosa
added that “if there is a matter that has caused a great deal of pain and
hardship, and a result of poverty that we see in our nation today, it is the
issue of land and education...” Despite the suffering white invaders caused, white
farm owners seem to be unmindful of the reality on the ground based on
historical evidence that their invasion caused much suffering for the majority South
Africans for many years. For, they are now complaining thinking that they are targeted
and discriminated against simply because they are white. Ernst Roets, deputy
chief executive of the civil rights group Afriforum issued a statement noting
that “the term ‘expropriation without compensation’ is a form of semantic
fraud. It is nothing more than racist theft.” This is hypocritical. Ironically,
when whites grabbed land from indigenous, on top of subjecting them under apartheid,
racist rule, they didn’t morally appreciate the fact that they were
discriminating against and robbing indigenous South Africans. Thanks to white supremacist and myopia, they
thought that it was right for them to grab land from its natural owners.
Methinks; in expropriating land, South Africa
must see to it that the colour of the person should not become a determinant. Like
landless indigenous, landless white South Africans must be given land. Indigenous South Africans who grabbed land
after getting in power, so, too, must relinquish the parcels of land they
acquired. This basically is what Mwl Nyerere avoided when he nationalised all
means of production. He made sure there were clearly and transparent criteria in
addressing the issue equitably and justly.
Shall Ramaphosa expropriate and redistribute land
decently and fairly, South Africa will become a point of reference for other
countries facing the same crime such as Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe and others
whose rulers betrayed the people after gaining independence so as legalise and
internalise landlessness. I think; true independence is the one that
encompasses all aspect of human life. Political independence without economic independence
is not only incomplete but fake.
In a nutshell, South Africa needs to learn
how to justifiably expropriate and equally redistribute land from Tanzania that
fully supported in the struggle against apartheid.
Source: The Citizen today March 14, 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment