The South African governement had adopted a "willing buyer, willing seller" approach to land redistribution since 1994 . They have paid market prices for land that white owners were prepared to sell, and then distributing it to landless blacks.
Things are about to change. There are many angry people in South Africa who do not think that land redistribution is moving fast enough. They count among their numbers new Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. She thinks that the pace of redistribution should be sped up, to match neighboring Zimbabwe, where most white-owned land has been seized by the state. Her actual quote was"There needs to be a bit of oomph. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us."
Asking for Zimbabwe's help on land redistribution is like asking Eichmann and Mengele to head up a human rights commission. Let us not forget that one of the results of Zimbabwe's "redistribution" is that 50% of its population now has no food. Zambia, on the other hand, who took many displaced Zimbabwean farmers in has enough to feed its citizens and still some left to export. South Africa wants help from Mugabe's government? The same Mugabe who is banned from Europe and the USA? The same Mugabe who flattens settlements when people don't vote for him in a "democratic" election? The same Mugabe who blames his country's economic problems on a Western plot to remove him from power?
Much can be said about someone based on who their friends are, and I don't like what this says about South Africa.
2 comments:
That really makes me sad and angry - like stupid, mindless spam masquarading as a "comment" on an otherwise intelligent blog!
Its unthinkable that any public official would point to Zimbabwe as a model of success on the governmental level, with any policy.
Pretty scary. (Justin)
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