By Alec Hogg
It’s depressing to witness the hate and bile erupting over South Africa’s land debate. Emotion and wisdom are poor bedfellows. It’s far better, surely, to apply the “responsibility and maturity” president Cyril Ramaphosa again called for when addressing Parliament this week.
SA’s 1913 Lands Act is a historical fact. Ditto the Apartheid government’s enthusiastic pursuit of dispossessing the land of indigenous people. Those on the wrong side of these injustices now make the rules. There is no gainsaying that reality either.
Ramaphosa told Parliament that between 1995 and 2014, a total of 3 M ha was restored to dispossessed owners. That’s the equivalent of 30,000 square km, almost twice the size of Swaziland. So there has been progress. But, the president added, whites (8% of the population) still possess 72% of the farms owned by individuals and Africans (80% of the population) only 4%.
He invited “all those who are angry, anxious, uncertain, excited and inspired to be part of finding a solution on this issue.” And urged them to be guided by SA’s admired Constitution which “explicitly demands of us that we take decisive measures to redress the injustice of land dispossession.” We agree. Because until this festering boil is properly lanced, the nation will struggle to move ahead.
