MyPE

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About That Land Restitution Thing and How we Could Solve it

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Forgive me for resorting to defining the persons herein by race – I feel that I need to do so in order to contextualise the conversation.

I (a white male on the right side of 50) was chatting to my lodger (a black male on the right side of 30) about the question of land and restitution.

Basically the concerns from his side were to do with how did the mainly white farmers manage to accumulate so much land – with the inference that they benefited because of apartheid.

On this we agreed that apartheid would have played a huge role in the skewed racial distribution of productive farm land.

Our points of departure were more around the cry to re-distribute vast tracts of farm land with no real emphasis on re-distributing land to be found in the cities.

Our meeting of the minds was around inability of the present government to solve the question being posed by younger black voters who wanted to see white farmers give back (or make available) their land to black people.

We also agreed that at this particular moment in time the debate around the merits of land redistribution was pretty much moot as, if the ANC did not pay attention to it, then the EFF stood a real chance of becoming the next sitting government and that would mean South Africa moving closer to the Zimbabwean model of land redistribution.

What we finally did find consensus on was my statement of how I imagine reacting if I was a black person and wanted to get my hands on a piece of farm land:

As a black person I would be determined to show ‘whitey’ the finger by being more successful and productive on my farm than he/she ever was. That would be the ultimate revenge for years of oppression and being viewed as an inferior being. Success is the ultimate revenge.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.