Expropriation not answer for SA
THERE are few things worse than injustice not being redressed, because the pain and bitterness of many years (or decades) poisons the individual's soul and damages his or her belief in the validity of society's espoused ideals.
For this reason and many others besides, we can agree that the problem of how to return land to those dispossessed "is an important national and sensitive issue", as Thobani kaMajwabana Mhlongo put it ("Land restitution reverses legacy of apartheid", July 3), but also that land restitution has become "about the ANC, individual beliefs or demagog[uer]y", along with the desire to get large payouts from the government.
Furthermore, we need to understand that collectivisation of agriculture in the USSR, its satellite states in Eastern Europe and other communist countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia did not work, and it was done through coercion, torture and murder. No sir, there was nothing voluntary or undisputed about it, unless you're willing to assert all those victims liked S&M!
It wasn't about rectifying the injustices of World War 2 and nazism, only the establishment of a deluded utopian ideal of the communist state over the corpses of those who owned and worked the land privately.
In its pursuit, the USSR engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide, causing the deaths of millions and setting the stage for the current conflict between ethnic Russians and locals of various republics like Ukraine and Moldova, something which all other communist countries did to the extent which was dictated by local conditions.
By far, the best proof of collectivisation's failure is the fact that USSR was forced to import millions of tons of grain from the US and Canada during the 1980s (for which it paid in dollars) to feed its population. Much like the 1913 Land Act, the evils of forced collectivisation haunt former communist states and stunt agricultural development to this day, whereas before World War 2 they were the bread basket of Europe.
Since 1989, it was the victims of communist expropriation who took back their land from the state, not the other way around.
The Nationalist government did not enact the 1913 Natives Land Act. In fact, it was the South Africa Party of Jan Smuts and Louis Botha.
The National Party did not even exist then, as it was created in 1915 and only took power in 1948.
Those who forget or refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat humanity's blunders.
It's the warnings of this truthful and painful history which validate the arguments of Naushad Omar ("Land reform another ANC debacle", June 26), Athol Trollip MPL ("Flying dangerous reform 'kite'", July 1) and every other citizen who opposes the disastrous idea of land expropriation without compensation.
Righting the wrongs of British colonialism and South African apartheid's land theft is hard.
The best I can think of is to offer compensation in cases where stolen land has changed hands too many times over the last 101 years, state-funded education in agriculture for the formerly dispossessed, along with financial aid to purchase farms which are put up for sale.
This will be a long process (25 years or more), but it probably offers the best means to preserve the integrity of private ownership rights, address previous dispossession, restore the faith and dignity of victims, create future opportunities for those who want to work the land and ensure South Africa's food security.
M Negres, Port Elizabeth
