Maravi

(PROGRESS) Land deals threaten South Sudan's development

Land deals threaten South Sudan's development
South Africans threaten death over white-holdings

Angry youth in Johannesburg go so far as to threaten murder, overlooking what a difference land justice would make. We trim, blend, and append two 2011 articles from (1) BBC, Oct 27, on South Africa, and (2) IRIN, Dec 12, on South Sudan.

South Africa: ANC Youth League protests call for reform
Several thousand protesters in South Africa's main city, Johannesburg, have demanded greater economic power for black people.

The demonstrators waved placards calling for the nationalization of mines in order to curb rising poverty and to reduce the influence of white-owned businesses. White minority rule (apartheid) ended in South Africa in 1994.

Unemployment in South Afrca stood at about 40% and was much higher among youth. The youth wing of the African National Congress, the governing party, organized the protest under the theme "economic freedom in our lifetime".

Protesters chanted "Shoot the boer [Afrikaner]", in defiance of a court ruling that outlawed the liberation-era song as inciting racial hatred.

They also held up placards which read, "90% of economy in hands of minority" and "Nationalisation -- a better life for all".

ANC Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu told the BBC the government should nationalise mines to create jobs, as the private sector was failing to do so.

"The ANC has got political power to transfer wealth from the minority to the majority and we are going to go the ANC government to say: “Let us utilize that power to take from those who currently own and give to those who don't'."

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema accused Chamber of Mines President Bheki Sibiya, a black person, of being the face of white capital. "There is no blood on the floor,” Malema said. “To prevent the blood, our demands must be met."

The ANC Youth League also expressed support for killed Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi. Its members wore T-shirts with his image above an AK-47 rifle.

Last week, the ANC Youth League hailed Col Gaddafi as a hero who had helped "liberate" Africa from colonial rule. It said he had been killed by "Western imperialists" and "agents provocateurs".

To see the whole article, click here .

JJS: People begging for jobs are begging for trouble. Doing that not only puts one in an inferior position, it also obscures the real issue -- land.


Land deals "threaten South Sudan's development"
Land deals done in newly-independent South Sudan “threaten to undermine the land rights of rural communities, increase food insecurity, entrench poverty, and skew development patterns” in the resource-rich but poor nation.

Deals done prior to South Sudan’s independence this year for almost 9 percent of the new nation’s land will do little to help the nation build itself up from one of the least developed in the world.

South Sudan became the world’s newest country on 9 July when it seceded from the north after decades of war.

The aid agency Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) said over five million hectares of land had already been signed away for investment for biofuels, ecotourism, agriculture, and forestry in the four years leading up to a January 2011 referendum on independence.

These projects are far more likely to undermine food security by dispossessing people from land and natural resources that are indispensable to their daily livelihoods.

Like many other sectors in South Sudan such as oil and construction, deals are another case of “hit and run” by foreigners wanting to exploit the country’s wealth and cannot be called “investment”.

“We’re a little concerned if the people negotiating the terms really know the value of the land they are selling”, said Nina Pedersen, manager of NPA’s Civil Society Development Project.

In many cases, aid agencies say deals were done between companies and a single local signatory without local consultations or the input of local, state, and central government.

The two classes of investors currently coming to South Sudan were those looking for quick returns or buying speculatively in a murky market.

Robert Lado, who heads South Sudan’s Land Commission, a body tasked with advising the government and drawing up the new policy, is pushing for land administrations at county and sub-county level that are run by community members, including women and tribal elders.

“Everything rests on land because we depend on oil exploration, our resources beneath the ground, subterranean resources, and we have arable land in South Sudan” which supports its 80 percent pastoralist people, Lado said.

Sudan has high levels of inter-ethnic violence and cattle raiding often sparked by disputes over grazing land and resources such as water.

While agriculture is the key to weaning the new nation off a 98 percent dependency on oil and turning it from an import-reliant subsistence market to an export one, it needs proper investment at a national level.

To see the whole article, click here .

JJS: Actually, it does not matter who owns the mines or land in general. It matters much more who gets the rent. It does not matter if society nationalizes mines and has government operate them or lease them to mining companies or lets companies own them and taxes the miners or charges them land dues. It only matters that all members share in the profit of the mine, values recovered and disbursed by their government.

Labels: LAND REFORM, NEOLIBERALISM, SOUTH AFRICA, SUDAN

posted by MrK @ 4:19 AM