South Africa to Speed Redistribution of Land to Blacks

By John Chiahemen and Gordon Bell
Reuters
Friday, February 3, 2006; 9:52 AM

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africans have entered an "Age of Hope," President Thabo Mbeki declared on Friday, as he promised measures to better help the poor, including speedy redistribution of land to the black majority.

In his annual State of the Nation address, Mbeki said the government and the private sector would invest 372 billion rand ($61 billion) in public infrastructure over three years to create jobs and improve rural and urban areas.

He focused on core grievances of the poor, including the contentious issue of land and poor municipal services that provoked unrest in several communities last year.

In a year for local elections, Mbeki's message that the government could step in to regulate land sales rather than allowing market forces to prevail is likely to be applauded by the land-hungry black majority.

The government has long insisted that land reform will be carried out in a legal and orderly manner, soothing investor fears about the prospect of Zimbabwe-style seizures of land from white farmers who hold the most fertile land in South Africa, more than a decade after the end of apartheid.

"Land reform and land restitution are critical to the transformation of our society," Mbeki said. "Accordingly, the state will play a more central role in the land reform program ensuring that the restitution program is accelerated."

He said the ministry of agriculture and land affairs would also regulate conditions under which foreigners buy land.

The announcement was cheered in particular by Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, the leader in parliament of the radical Azanian People's Organization who said: "This is what we have been fighting for all along."

"AGE OF HOPE"

Mbeki referred to national surveys showing most South Africans are optimistic about the future and putting business confidence at its highest for 25 years despite the country's HIV/AIDS crisis, joblessness and other regional problems.

"What all these figures signify is that our people are firmly convinced that our country has entered its Age of Hope," he said.

Mbeki gave his speech against the backdrop of a buoyant economy. South Africa has recorded five years of sustained growth and is expected to announce a balanced budget this year.

But he is under growing pressure to deal with graft-riddled and inefficient municipal councils and to address a jobless rate officially put at 26.7 percent.

Mbeki said the government would speed up a public sector investment program he first announced last month when he launched the campaign of his ruling African National Congress for local elections on March 1.

The three-year public sector investment program would boost electricity supply, improve roads, rail and telecommunications infrastructure and build schools, health facilities and homes.

South Africa is due to stage FIFA's soccer World Cup in 2010 and must have world class infrastructure in place for the biggest global event to be staged on the African continent.

While Mbeki's personal standing and that of the national government remains at the high level it was when the ANC swept parliamentary elections in 2004, the performance of municipal authorities has provoked mounting anger across the country.

Mbeki said the government was addressing the issue.

Opposition parties criticised Mbeki for his glancing mention of HIV/AIDS, which his government has downplayed despite estimates that some 5 million South Africans are infected, the highest caseload in the world.

And church leaders took him to task for failing to outline how South Africa would respond to deepening political crises in its neighbors Zimbabwe and Swaziland, where leaders are accused of cracking down on freedoms amid mounting economic problems.

Thanks Ann, why do I have a bad feeling about this

you and me both!!!

Just history repeating itself. We all should have bad feelings about it and realize that NOW is the time to hunt Africa, including South Africa.

Where do you suppose,they found 61 Billon to
invest in these new programs?..None of it will
ever reach the man in the street.Most will wind
up out of the country in private"retirement accounts".Mugabe showed the way to becoming rich
at the expense of the people.Now its South Africas turn."Yeah,those white people really
screwed you over"

At least as good of an idea as Roosevelt's "New Deal" or Johnson's "Great Society".

None of this information is new, its been swirling about the halls of power for at least a decade now.
Public address rhetoric is a tool of just about every politician.

SA certainly won't walk the path of Zim (in the last few years). Land restitution has been trundeling along since 1994 and their aims are to make it less cumbersome, not impede activities of visiting hunters, don't worry boys........

We must keep in mind that not every country must resemble the US in policy and action. SA really does have an amazing winning sentiment that has been growing steadily in the last few years. Yes, we have issues to face for sure (as do you in the US) and each is unique.
The key to solving them is to roll with change and be adapatble. No, that doesn't mean regression but a committment to working on solutions instead of throwing uninformed fears as fuel for the fire. The basing of an entire paradigm and predicting an outcome on limtied, fallible media information or short experience lacks depth and is dangerous in the skewed spinoffs it creates.

SA will long remain a great place to visit (or live if any of you so wish), dont kill the horse before its run its race.....I don't want to get into a politcal pissing match but the US has issues that have not been solved in a century and keep spiralling. Introspection is often best practiced at home.

Cheers

President Thabo Mbeki's comments are the tapping sound of more nails in the coffin. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

Who's coffin?

Civilization’s.

Look at any country that has tried the "land redistribution" scheme. Zambia and Zimbabwe are prime examples.

This shit doesn't work! The whole "workers paradise" victimized, poor me, Marxist model doesn't work. It's been proven time and again. And make no mistake about it the ANC is a Marxist organization.

Yet we are seeing these African leaders bang their collective heads against that brick wall over and over again.

South Africa has many things going for it. I hope that ten years from now we can all look back and say we were wrong about this one.

But all the signs are there.

Land push is a necessity

(From The Star Newspaper)
February 6, 2006

By tthe Editor

Land ownership is an issue that is central to the stability of a democracy, and one that often evokes a lot of emotions. So we think it is correct that it received prominence in President Thabo Mbeki's state of the nation address in parliament on Friday.

More than nine decades ago, land was taken away from black people as a first and major step to disenfranchise them in the country of their birth. Communities were systematically - and often forcefully - moved from prime land and dumped in no-man's-land, often without shelter or services. The land was seized by the political masters of the day, and their acts were legalised through legislation prohibiting black people from owning land.

All of this changed with the dawn of democracy in South Africa. First to go was the Land Act of 1913, which made it illegal for black people to own land. This was followed by agreements and pieces of legislation that enabled communities who had been forcefully removed from their land to return. The legislation also makes room for the government to compensate families who cannot, for practical reasons, return to their land.

This process of land reform and restitution has not gone as smoothly and as quickly as expected. It has been stalled by, among others, the manipulation of land prices and the unavailability of "willing sellers".

We welcome the announcement that the state is going to play more of a central role in the land reform programme. Other sectors have had more than 10 years to lead the process - without much success.

The government has to intervene, because any delay in restoring land to its rightful owners will lead to political and social instability.

Shades of George Orwell....they even have some of the whites chanting the mantra. "We are all equal, but some are more equal than others".

Who is the "rightful owner" of a piece of land? The first person to set foot on it? (In that case, give it all back to the Bushmen and the Hottentots please). Or the person who has devoted his life's work to develop it into a productive asset and best qualified to manage it? Ever heard of eminent domain?

Fact is, the ANC is not stupid. First they are confiscating guns through a bureacratic "gun control" program dressed up as an anti-crime bill (in theory you can own a few guns, but in practice your permits never arrive); next they will take the land forcibly, without fear of a last-ditch stand by folks who have worked it for generations, to the benefit of society at large. This policy is an evil cocktail of equal parts of retribution, marxist ideology, vote-buying, and plunder by the political elite for personal profit. The result will be another generation of politically connected instant millionaires, an anorexic agricultural sector, and an even hungrier and poorer populace dependent on foreign aid. Oh, and the wildlife will really get skewered. Literally.

I say to the US and European voting public: No aid to African countries (Zimbabwe, Namibia and SA specifically) who bring famine upon themselves by pursuing these inane "redistribution" policies. They can feed themselves if the politicians keep their greedy hands off the private sector.