24/06/2013 00:00:00
by Agencies
COMMENT - This article uses loaded language and characterisation, like 'controversial' or 'highly criticised'. Controversial to whom and highly criticised by whom? By implication, the neo-apartheid situation South Africans find themselves in 'isn't controversial' and apparently 'goes uncriticised'. Anyway, it seems like it is the SACP which inherits the ANC's mantle of protector of the Freedom Charter. - MrK
SOUTH Africa can learn from the successes of Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme, Public Works Minister and Communist Party (SACP) deputy chairman Thulas Nxesi has said.
Speaking at the KwaZulu-Natal SACP’s provincial general council in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday, Nxesi stressed that he was not advocating for Zimbabwe-style land grabs, but pointed out that there had been some successes recorded in the neighbouring country since the start of its highly criticised land reforms.
“We may be able to learn something from the agrarian model adopted by our neighbours (of) essentially breaking down large-scale farms and promoting more intensive small-scale farming,” Nxesi, also the minister for Public Works, said.
He said that research had shown that through this new approach and focus on small-scale farming, Zimbabwe’s land reform process had led to more people benefiting directly from farming than was the case before.
Research also showed that 6,000 white owners were replaced by over 200,000 small-scale black farmers, while white-owned farms employed about 250,000 workers today, there are about one million people who made a living from smaller-scale farming, he said.
“The land question remains a defining and persisting difference in South African politics.”
Nxesi hit out at the rival Democratic Alliance (DA), saying it was no surprise that the opposition party was against the country’s Expropriation Bill, which would allow for the expropriation of land if that was deemed to be in the public interest, with the amount to be paid as compensation being determined by the courts.
The DA has argued that some aspects of the bill were unconstitutional and could lead to land being expropriated at the whim of the minister.
But Nxesi said opponents of the bill wanted to defend the status quo.
“We define ourselves by our approach to the land question and the expropriation bill. You cannot sit on the fence; you either support an orderly constitutional process of land reform or you continue to defend privilege and vested interests,” he said.
The state would have to drive the process, he said. “If we look to history, the South African state has always played a central role in structuring property, race and class relations in the countryside to promote white farmers as they competed with their black counterparts for labour, land, water, grazing rights, other resources and markets.”
He said the ANC would have to ensure that the elements of state power were “mobilised” to address land reform.
Nxesi said that as part of addressing the land issue, priorities should include ensuring that farm dwellers were protected against illegal evictions, speeding up land reform and ensuring support to emerging farmers.
The SACP said the level of support given to farming had declined, while other developing economies had adopted policies to increase support for agriculture.
The party also blamed what it said were the post-1994 agriculture “liberalisation” policies which led to the collapse of many white-owned farms, rural towns and rural economies.
COMMENTS
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joemuda
We said it before and we will say it again, The western imperialists never wanted the Zim's land reform to succeed because it would inspire other African countries with skewed land patterns to follow suit. So they made our economy "scream" and blamed it on the land redistribution. This was meant to scare others like SA from doing the same. But now, the storm has weathered, things are getting more and more stable in the house of stone. There is now less negatives to talk about and the true picture of our land redistribution is now coming to light. Those who admired us in secret are now coming out in the open and doing exactly what the neocolonialists feared would happen i.e using Zimbabwe as a example or model to implement their own redistribution of land. Mugabe is going to be fully vindicated the year our agriculture production is going to surpass that of the pre-land reform era. Tobacco production has already done that so everybody knows its now just a matter of time before things get back to normal in all agricultural sectors, this time under a totally black farming community. I'm glad more and more people in SA are now seeing the light, or rather they are now coming in the open.
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Ruwa
To those SA who bash Zimbabwe on this forum, I hope you are licking your wounds when you read the success of our land reform and indigenous empowerment. This serves as a lesson to those SA day dreamers who are in denial about the recovering new ZIMBABWE. Ignorant as you are, envy is what motivates you to continuously live in denial. Dear brother SA the tides are turning, you will soon be begging for help on our doorsteps. Time will tell. Pamberi neZimbabwe. We are a role model for Africa.
Labels: LAND REFORM, NEOLIBERALISM, SACP, THULAS NXESI
posted by MrK @ 4:36 PM
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