TRANSFORMATION INTO TURMOIL
TLU/TAU (SA) International Bulletin
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EDITOR'S NOTE

This recent edition of the TLU/TAU (SA) International Bulletin provides
vivid on-the-spot details about the continuing disasters of the "new"
South Africa, particularly regarding the ANC's land acquisition programme
- a euphemistic term for land theft. It should never be forgotten in this
regard that it isn't the Black population of the country as a whole who
benefit from this land expropriation policy, but only a small privileged
"elite" with close ties to the ANC leadership - who moreover clearly do
not know how to manage their ill-gotten land gains! We wonder whether all
those sell-outs who voted "Yes" in 1992 are now proud of their actions
which have resulted in the inevitable current disaster!

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TRANSFORMATION INTO TURMOIL

It's that word again - transformation. It has a positive ring, conjuring
up scenes of progress as does the other successful ANC buzzword, reform.
The ANC now refers particularly to land, a clarion call to most Africans
whose history shows that land was virtually everything they had in life,
land and cattle.

In the stone-age era in which they lived for thousands of years, the
acquisition (a polite word for plunder and pillage) of land meant victory.
One would think that after living with whites for more than 350 years of
South Africa's development into what was once a functioning first world
country, the question of land as simply an asset on which to live and
plant a few corn stalks, would have been relegated to the same African
history books as were the spear and the loin cloth.

But this is certainly not the case in the thinking processes of South
Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa! While most of the world has defined
land's use for positive purposes such as commercial farming, or national
parks, or even front lawns, the president wants land to "distribute" to
his followers, come what may! His party's redistribution-of-land policy
has been an abject failure, but failure doesn't count much in the ANC's
vocabulary when it comes to canvassing votes. Failure does not deter the
ideologue!

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EXPROPRIATION WITHOUT COMPENSATION

What are we looking at now? We are witnessing a sly insertion into the
new Expropriation Act (B23 of 2020) of a clause which actually
contravenes the country's constitution. But who's worrying about that at
the moment? We are now faced with the taking of land "with nil
compensation". Whether its "nil" compensation or "without" compensation,
the outcome is the same. Of course there are conditions and clauses and
assurances that this will not be done willy nilly, without careful
thought-through contexts and circumstances. But there were lots of things
that have happened in South Africa over the past thirty years or so that
sounded noble and democratic at first reading, which eventually turned
into nightmares.

This latest sleight of hand is embodied in Chapter 5 of the new
Expropriation Act under the heading "Determination of Compensation".
Section 12 (3) states "It may be just and equitable for nil compensation
to be paid where land is expropriated in the public interest, having
regard to all relevant circumstances, including"... It then goes on to
describe four conditions when the "nil" compensation would be justified,
all of them subject to interpretation.

The crux of course is "in the public interest". Who then defines the
public interest? Given the wholesale dissipation of virtually every
aspect of South Africa's infrastructure, municipal functions, education
and health systems, electricity supply, roads, railways and harbours and
the dozens of other facets of SA life that the ANC's policies have
compromised, huge disparities between thinking processes of the ANC and
the rest of us are evident. The ANC's "public interest" could be quite
different to the actual public's interest.

It would appear that, to the ANC, human qualities such as efficiency,
honesty, competence, integrity, accountability and a responsibility to
maintain the South Africa that was handed to them on a platter in 1994
mean nothing. This is clear when one observes what they have done with
South Africa in their thirty years of governance. Thus, how can we expect
parity of thinking or a meeting of the minds on such a thing as "public
interest"?

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THE ANC'S TRACK RECORD OF LAND TAKEOVERS

It is abysmal to say the least. But let not this fact stand in the way of
further ANC catastrophes. During their land "reform" program, sold to the
gullible as a step forward to bringing black people into farming and
giving them a stake in the country's future, more than 3,200 farms were
lost to production. These farms were handed over to beneficiaries, some
of whom were in the form of communities (Community Property Associations
- CPA), and others individuals. There is not one recorded success,
success meaning making a profit and paying taxes without the help of a
commercial farmer "monitor" or any other outside assistance.

More than five years ago, an advisory panel on land reform appointed by
president Ramaphosa in September 2018 presented a provisional report to
Parliament in 2019. Chaired by African Farmers Association of SA
president Dr. Vuyo Mahlati, the panel's conclusions were not what the
president expected. Parliament wanted to know how the beneficiaries of
land reform are selected, whether they were granted title deeds (most
weren't), and what about the availability of water for the farms?
Parliament was surprised that there was no mention of water in the
panel's report. They told the panel that "distributing land without
ensuring that it comes with adequate water is a recipe for failure".

One of the panel asked Parliament what was the purpose of land reform?
Although it was intended to benefit the poor, the panel referred to a
report released by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) of the SA Police
in January 2019 stating "it had found evidence of fraud and corruption
affecting land reform on a grand scale due to a complete lack of control
in the process. There is evidence of elite capture of land reform by the
wealthy, the non-farmers, and by the politically connected".

The panel naively offered suggestions to president Ramaphosa of a new
method of allocating land, and finance minister the late Tito Mboweni
then announced that R18.4 billion had been allocated in his budget to
help finalise restitutions and the payment for 325,000 hectares of land
for distribution. The panel declared that the process of land reform
required an "urgent overhaul". Clearly the government was not listening
to this advice but they quickly took the money on offer.

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MORE FARM FAILURES

Since then, farm beneficiary failures continued unabated. In June 2024,
the Department of Land Reform declared it wanted ownership of the
country's highest-value land claim to be transferred to it "so it can
manage a dispute among beneficiaries". The government (taxpayers) paid
R1.1 billion for this land claim - the Mala Mala game reserve, and the
beneficiaries (recipients of the land) have been fighting each other ever
since. This is the story of most land claim beneficiary problems. The
farm is handed over to a committee representing in many instances family
and tribal members (the CPA), and then the government disappears. There
is no one in charge, the recipients are left to their own devices and
inevitably the entity collapses. It is a pattern repeated time and time
again.

It is interesting to note that there are 2 million hectares of state
farmland sitting idle for black owners. Agricultural expert Wandile
Sihlobo journeyed across the heartland of the Karoo area of South Africa
and reported in August 2024 that some black farmers are still waiting for
title deeds on land given to them, yet still owned by the state.

Because there are no title deeds, many farmers cannot improve and expand
to commercialise farming operations because of a lack of security of
tenure. When and if this problem is alleviated, the government then only
gives them short-term leases which is not enough security for the bank to
grant them finance. As well, Sihlobo laments the inability of local
municipalities to help these farmers. Roads are impassable and many
farmers do not have enough water. The taint of ANC incompetence is
everywhere in South Africa, including the failure of a huge percentage of
municipalities. The country is not holistically sound.

The failures of farm takeovers are many and varied. Everyone is aware of
the travails of the once famous Zebediela Citrus Estate, once the jewel
in the crown for fruit production. It is now bankrupt, with the final
liquidation order issued in the Polokwane High Court in August 2023. This
estate once exported more than three million oranges per annum from its
3,000 hectare capacity.

In KwaZulu Natal, a mere 3% of beneficiary Communal Property Associations
(CPA's) are compliant with basic legal requirements. This has resulted in
large swathes of formerly productive land lying unfarmed and underutilised.
This after three decades of the ANC's land restitution processes based on
83,000 land claims being settled nationwide at a cost of R58 billion.
Local commercial farmers, Indian and white, complain that farms are handed
over to people "with absolutely no skills". There are very serious
repercussions for food security as these handed-over farms are not
productive.

"Already we are seeing that agricultural service businesses which used to
service these farms have gone bankrupt. A once vibrant rural farm area is
disintegrating", says veteran dairy farmer John Bredin. He is worried
about the spread of animal diseases such as foot and mouth, along with
uncontrolled veld fires spreading from farms that are not well managed.
Disease control is almost non-existent. A large dairy farm in the area
owned by a commercial farmer recently lost its export licence because of
the surrounding chaos. South Africa's commercial farming sector is being
judged overseas through the prism of chaos that exists under the ANC
government. (Daily Maverick 1.9.24)

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DOG HUNTS ON WILDLIFE FARMS

There has been a massive surge in illegal hunts using dogs on several
"claimed" farms, with the trespassing dog owners placing bets on their
packs killing the wild game. Some of this game comprises endangered
species. Commercial livestock is also killed in these hunts. The police
are nowhere to be seen during this criminality.

In a report dated 1 September 2024, Daily Maverick (DM) outlines in
detail the floundering state of the government's land redistribution
policy. This has also raised concerns about the impact on national food
security, rural jobs, animal disease control and SA's agricultural
economy. DM visited some farms that had been handed over under the land
distribution policy and found two former productive farms where the land
now lies mostly fallow, with little evidence of any activity whatsoever
by the claimants.

In one inspection, the Dawn Valley Farm in Ixopo (a 2,140 hectare
vegetable farm and game ranch purchased by the state (taxpayer) for
R12.8 million), DM found large parts of the farm had reverted to
indigenous thorn bush. A nearby game lodge had been burnt to the ground
and most of the large antelope and other wildlife had been "hunted out".
(Eaten)

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YET HERE HE GOES AGAIN!

The legislation the president has signed in the Expropriation without
Compensation Bill shows the complete disregard by the president and his
obtuse followers that the results of his action will result in more of
the same. Farmland is in their crosshairs. Food security will be further
put at risk. Stupidity follows stupidity, and it is dangerous for South
Africa to sustain a government that doesn't know what it is doing.
Everything must be done to curb this legislation. The fight is on.

The ANC government: how to get rid of them? As Shakespeare put it: "That
is the question". Whatever the liberal media says (and it is astounding
that there are still media people who somehow think SA can sustain this
latest ANC sleight of hand), as it bends backward to sanitise this legal
land grab, this pernicious clause slipped into the new Expropriation Act
must be exposed for what it is.

We will descend into a second Zimbabwe if nothing is done to stop the
theft of the few good things remaining in South Africa - its good people
and its skilful farmers who produce food under circumstances that do not
exist in the civilised world.