Ayanda Mdluli
JOHANNESBURG- There is a major misconception going around in South Africa that black people are unable to work the land, and that if the land is returned to its rightful owners our economy will collapse like Zimbabwe, or food security will be threatened.
This general misconception is currently being peddled by racist white Afrikaners and their black stooges who are desperately trying to hold on to their old way of life come hell or high water. South Africa is a country full of misconceptions where anything black has been demonized since the days of the swaart gevaar during apartheid.
Last week, the ANC, supported by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) moved to amend section 25 of the constitution which will allow land expropriation without compensation.
Access to the ownership of property has largely been an economic barrier for black people who are often at the margins of lucrative economic ventures due to institutionalised racism in our economic landscape.
Generally, the majority of white people in South Africa have failed to transform and have failed to share the wealth of this nation with the majority of its citizens and are now vehemently opposed to land expropriation even though having access to land for the majority will ensure massive economic benefits for the country.
It cannot be right that 23 years after democracy, we still have raciall
y charged structural dynamics where white commercial farmers are entrenched in markets that leaves black-owned farming enterprises at the margins of lucrative agricultural ventures.
As evidenced by the Land Audit Report of November 2017 which was conducted by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, only a small fraction of land available for redistribution and finance meant for the development of black-owned farming enterprises ever makes it to black farmers.
The report also explicitly states that whites in SA own more than 26.6 million ha which is about 72% of the total 37 million ha of farms and agricultural holdings by individual landowners. Black people, and Africans, in particular, own only 4% of this, while Indians own 5% and coloureds at 15%.
Again, the black African continues to be marginalised in his own land, only receiving the crumbs and constantly playing second fiddle to other racial denominations.
The problem with the misconception on land expropriation without compensation in the South African context is that many white South Africans have told and spread the same lie to each other that they have started believing in these various fabrications that are a blatant and deliberate misconstruction of the truth.
Here are some of the lies associated with whiteness in SA:
1.) Most land reform projects have failed and have not yielded results.
2.) If land expropriation occurs, we will turn into another Zimbabwe where our economy is going to collapse, threatening food security.
3.) Black South Africans have no claim to the land because it was uninhibited when whites first set foot on our shores in 1652.
Let us unpack the first set of lies. The land reform process post-1994 was always going to be a series of trial and error, albeit managed carefully to ensure that it does not compromise our peaceful transition into democratic South Africa. This is where the leadership of the ANC at the time and throughout the process need to be commended as the reconciliation project saved many lives and prevented a full out civil war.
The land reform policy explicitly conceded that redress was required in order to address the injustices of the past where people were dispossessed and had their land and resources taken away in order to boost the economic progression of the white community through the 1913 Land Act.
More than 60% of South Africa’s Land Reform projects have yielded positive results. This fact completely nullifies any argument that the Land Reform process is a failure. It has produced some successful black farmers, many of whom are members of the African Farmers Association of SA.
Dealing with the second point, South Africa will never turn into a Zimbabwe because of the uniqueness of the South African experience. South Africa has a very large and complex economy as opposed 
to Zimbabwe and agricultural production only contributes less than 3% of our total GDP.
This means that even if our agricultural sector does take a slight knock, the overall impact on the broader economy will be devoid of any meaningful damage. Also, the real reason why Zimbabwe failed in its land redistribution process, it was because of the sanctions that were applied by Western nations which crippled her economy. When white Zimbabweans failed to honour the Lancaster House Agreements that were signed when Zanu PF came into power, the nation was left with little option but to reclaim land that was stolen through conquest, rape, theft, murder and pacification.
Given the complexity and strategic global positioning of the South African economy, there will be no global bullying through economic sanctions on SA. There will be no widespread panic or mass inflation.
In dealing with the third and final lie, one must understand that the source of this lie stems from the Berlin Conference of 1884 which regulated European colonization of the entire African continent. This is widely viewed by many credible historians as the formalization of the scramble for Africa.
States such as Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Portugal and the Netherlands were all part of this conference which decreed that no African nations would be recognised as the legitimate owners of their land. Sovereign nations were eliminated and existing African autonomy and self-governance was disregarded and shut down in a very brutal manner.
At this conference, it was decreed that land would be taken through conquest and genocide if necessary. More than 10 million Africans were slaughtered by King Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo, while Cecil Rhodes massacred more than 500 000 black Africans Southern Africa. Many more African societies were displaced, wiped out and razed to the ground by European forces.
The establishment of the Union of South Africa after the annexation of the Orange Free State, Zululand and the Transvaal Republic was a direct result of the resolutions taken at the Berlin Conference. Also, Africa’s 100 years of war, also known as the “Kaffir Wars” where the Xhosa nations fought against Afrikaner and British invasions of their territories for more than a century is enough to dispel this blatant misconstruction of the truth.
South Africans need to educate themselves and must not buy into the lies that are being peddled by individuals who want to hold back the black man. No race in South Africa has endured what blacks have had to endure for centuries under white domination. Currently, black farmers only have a fraction of the total land that is meant for agricultural land reform and distribution. On top of that, out of its R39 billion loan book, the Land Bank currently only allocates R2 billion to black-owned farming enterprises while the rest is channelled through various institutions to white-owned commercial farmers. The lies that are peddled by white supremacists regarding land expropriation in SA are clearly designed to protect their selfish interests.
@AyandaMdluli28
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