Right wrongs or pay price
THE response of F Boyd (The Cape Argus, April 4), on the issue of landlessnes, as encapsulated in my letter of March 28, refers: In terms of the principle of one’s right of reply, I respond as follows.
First, the dop system and its concomitant legacy is in clear evidence in so many poverty-stricken communities, almost exclusively black and coloured, that to pat one on the back that it is discontinued is disingenuous, to say the least.
Second, as should have been obvious to any discerning reader, my letter was not really aimed at Mr Dutton, but to spark a debate on the question of landlessness in South Africa, to start having a conversation on, as described in the Preamble of our Constitution, righting the wrongs of the past. That F Boyd has responded, whether dismissive or not, is a sign in the right direction.
We may not be in agreement now, but talk we must, even if one’s contribution is defined as an insulting, to quote his letter “head-in-the-sand attitude of ignorance” and, “ignoring the obvious and insoluble”.
Indeed the solutions to the reality that whites own more than 70% of the land while making up less than 10% of the population, is extremely challenging, and to adopt a posture of like it or lump it because it is insoluble is extremely myopic, to put it kindly.
And to regard it with a Zuma-esque “until Jesus comes” attitude, is just going to place us on the road to nowhere.
Third, it is interesting that F Boyd rather stealthily also invokes his mixed lineage of Khoisan and European blood, almost as if to say, my roots are also in Africa, so when it suits me to fight for the status quo of land possession, I will lay claim to my Khoisan ancestry. Forgive me for laughing at this convoluted reasoning.
And fourth, the ridiculous question of wanting me to provide F Boyd with laboratory proof of percentages of how mixed I am is not even a clever deflection.
The essence of my letter was simple. Our people have been subjugated into landlessness through the violent systems of colonialism and apartheid. Addressing those wrongs now becomes a priority, and the sooner we do it the better it will be for our collective futures.