In the stone- age era in which they lived for thousands of years, the acquisition (a polite word for plunder and pillage) of land meant victory. One would think that after living with whites for more than 350 years of South Africa’s development into what was once a functioning first world country, the question of land as simply an asset on which to live and plant a few corn stalks, would have been relegated to the same African history books as were the spear and the loin cloth.

But this is certainly not the case in the thinking processes of South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa! While most of the world has defined land’s use for positive purposes such as commercial farming, or national parks, or even front lawns, the president wants land to “distribute” to his followers, come what may! His party’s redistribution-of-land policy has been an abject failure, but failure doesn’t count much in the ANC’s vocabulary when it comes to canvassing votes.  Failure does not deter the ideologue!

EXPROPRIATION WITHOUT COMPENSATION

What are we looking at now? We are witnessing a sly insertion into the new Expropriation Act (B23 of 2020) of a clause which actually contravenes the country’s constitution. But who’s worrying about that at the moment? We are now faced with the taking of land “with nil compensation”. Whether its “nil” compensation or “without” compensation, the outcome is the same. Of course there are conditions and clauses and assurances that this will not be done willy nilly, without careful thought-through contexts and circumstances. But there were lots of things that have happened in South Africa over the past thirty years or so that sounded noble and democratic at first reading, which eventually turned into nightmares.

This latest sleight of hand is embodied in Chapter 5 of the new Expropriation Act under the heading “Determination of Compensation”. Section 12 (3) states “It may be just and equitable for nil compensation to be paid where land is expropriated in the public interest, having regard to all relevant circumstances, including”…………… It then goes on to describe four conditions when the “nil” compensation would be justified, all of them subject to interpretation.

The crux of course is “in the public interest”.  Who then defines the public interest? Given the wholesale dissipation  of virtually every aspect of South Africa’s infrastructure, municipal functions,  education and health systems, electricity supply, roads, railways and harbours and the dozens of other facets of SA life that the ANC’s policies have compromised, huge disparities between thinking processes of the ANC and the rest of us are evident. The ANC’s “public interest” could be quite different to the actual  public’s interest.

It would appear that, to the ANC, human qualities such as efficiency, honesty, competence, integrity, accountability and a responsibility to maintain the South Africa that was handed to them on a platter in 1994 mean nothing. This is clear when one observes what they have done with South Africa in their thirty years of governance. Thus, how can we expect parity of thinking or a meeting of the minds on such a thing as “public interest”?

THE ANC’S TRACK RECORD OF LAND TAKEOVERS

It is abysmal to say the least.  But let not this fact stand in the way of further ANC catastrophes. During their land “reform” program, sold to the gullible as a step forward to bringing black people into farming and giving them a stake in the country’s future, more than 3 200 farms were lost to production. These farms were handed over to beneficiaries, some of whom were in the form of communities (Community Property Associations – CPA), and others individuals. There is not one recorded success, success meaning making a profit and paying taxes without the help of a commercial farmer ”monitor” or any other outside assistance.

More than five years ago, an advisory panel on land reform appointed by president Ramaphosa in September 2018 presented a provisional report to Parliament in 2019.  Chaired by African Farmers Association of SA president Dr.Vuyo Mahlati, the panel’s conclusions were not what the president expected. Parliament wanted to know how the beneficiaries of land reform are selected, whether they were granted title deeds (most weren’t), and what about the availability of water for the farms? Parliament was surprised that there was no mention of water in the panel’s report. . They told the panel that “distributing land without ensuring that it comes with adequate water is a recipe for failure”.

One of the panel asked Parliament what was the purpose of land reform? Although it was intended to benefit the poor, the panel referred to a report released by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) of the SA Police in January 2019 stating “it had found evidence of fraud and corruption affecting land reform on a grand scale due to a complete lack of control in the process. There is evidence of elite capture of land reform by the wealthy, the non-farmers, and by the politically connected”.

The panel naively offered suggestions to president Ramaphosa of a new method of allocating land, and finance minister the late Tito Mboweni then announced that R18.4 billion had been allocated in his budget to help finalise restitutions and the payment for 325,000 hectares of land for distribution.  The panel declared that the process of land reform required an “urgent overhaul”. Clearly the government was not listening to this advice but they quickly took the money on offer.

MORE FARM FAILURES

Since then, farm beneficiary failures continued unabated. In June 2024, the Department of Land Reform declared it wanted ownership of the country’s highest-value land claim to be transferred to it ‘so it can manag  a dispute among beneficiaries”. The government (taxpayers) paid R1.1 billion for this land claim – the Mala Mala game reserve, and the beneficiaries (recipients of the land) have been fighting each other ever since. This is the story of most land claim beneficiary problems. The farm is handed over to a committee representing in many instances family and tribal members (the CPA),  and then the government disappears. There is no one in charge, the recipients are left to their own devices and inevitably the entity collapses. It is a pattern repeated time and time again.

It is interesting to note that there are 2 million hectares of state farmland sitting idle for black owners. Agricultural expert Wandile Sihlobo journeyed across the heartland of the Karoo area of South Africa  and reported in August 2024 that some black farmers are still waiting for title deeds on land given to them, yet still owned by the state.

Because there are no title deeds, many farmers  cannot improve and expand to commercialise farming operations because of a lack of security of tenure. When and if this problem is alleviated, the government then only gives them short-term leases which is not enough security for the bank to grant them finance. As well, Sihlobo laments the inability of local municipalities to help these farmers. Roads are impassable and many farmers do not have enough water. The taint of ANC incompetence is everywhere in South Africa, including the failure of a huge percentage of municipalities. The country is not holistically sound.

The failures of farm takeovers are many and varied. Everyone is aware of the travails of the once famous Zebediela Citrus Estate, once the jewel in the crown for fruit production. It is now bankrupt, with the final liquidation order issued in the Polokwane High court in August 2023. This estate once exported more than  three million oranges per annum from its 3 000 hectare capacity.

In  KwaZulu Natal,  a mere 3% of beneficiary Communal Property Associations (CPA’s)  are compliant with basic legal requirements. This has resulted in large swathes of formerly productive land lying unfarmed and underutilised. This after three decades of the ANC’s land restitution processes based on 83 000 land claims being settled nationwide at a cost of R58 billion. Local commercial farmers, Indian and white, complain that farms are handed over to people “with absolutely no skills”. There are very serious repercussions for food security as these handed-over farms are not productive.

“Already we are seeing that agricultural service businesses which used to service these farms have gone bankrupt . A once vibrant rural farm area is disintegrating”, says veteran dairy farmer John Bredin. He is worried about the spread of animal diseases such as foot and mouth, along with uncontrolled veld fires spreading from farms that are not well managed. Disease control is almost non-existent. A large dairy farm in the area owned by a commercial farmer recently lost its export licence because of the surrounding chaos. South Africa’s commercial farming sector is being judged overseas through the prism of chaos that exists under the ANC government. (Daily Maverick 1.9.24)

DOG HUNTS ON WILDLIFE FARMS

There has been a massive surge in illegal hunts using dogs on several “claimed” farms, with the trespassing dog owners placing bets on their packs killing the wild game. Some of this game comprises endangered species. Commercial livestock is also killed in these hunts. The police are nowhere to be seen during this criminality.

In a report dated 1September 2024, Daily Maverick (DM) outlines in detail the floundering state of the government’s land redistribution policy.  This has also raised concerns about the impact on national food security, rural jobs, animal disease control and SA’s agricultural economy. DM visited some farms that had been handed over under the land distribution policy and found two former productive farms where the land now lies mostly fallow, with little evidence of any activity whatsoever by the claimants.

In one inspection, the Dawn Valley Farm in Ixopo ( a 2140 hectare vegetable farm and game ranch purchased by the state (taxpayer) for R12,8 million),DM found large parts of the farm had reverted to indigenous thorn bush. A nearby game lodge had been burnt to the ground and most of the large antelope and other wildlife had been “hunted out”. (Eaten)

YET HERE HE GOES AGAIN!

The legislation the president has signed in the Expropriation without Compensation Bill shows the complete disregard by the president and his obtuse followers that the results of his action will result in more of the same. Farmland is in their crosshairs.  Food security will be further put at risk. Stupidity follows stupidity, and it is dangerous for South Africa to sustain a government that doesn’t know what  it is doing. Everything must be done to curb this legislation. The fight is on.

The ANC government: how to get rid of them? As Shakespeare put it: “That is the question”. Whatever the liberal media says (and it is astounding that there are still media people who somehow think SA can sustain this latest ANC sleight of hand), as it bends backward to sanitise this legal land grab, this pernicious clause slipped into the new Expropriation Act must be exposed for what it is.

We will descend into  a second Zimbabwe if nothing is done to stop the theft of the few good things remaining in South Africa – its good people and its skilful farmers who produce food under circumstances that do not exist in the civilised world.