A blight on the land

Imagine the situation in SA today if Jacob Zuma and the ANC had applied their minds properly to the distribution of land instead of looting and fleecing state coffers.

We would now have an orderly process of distribution of land for the people who have been deprived. But the reality is that every stateowned entity is bankrupt because of pillaging and incompetence.

Ministers and officials walk free. Billions have been spent on propping up these entities, aside from the R600bn that is alleged to have been stolen due to corruption by the ANC.

Instead, Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe spews out veiled threats such as “land grabs in Zimbabwe would look like a Sunday picnic”.

It has been customary for the governing ANC to blame apartheid, whites, white monopoly capital and such for the ills prevailing in the country.

Mantashe says further that there is “land hunger” among black South Africans.

This is nonsense. Ownership of land comes with rates and taxes, expenses the poor can ill afford. In any event, what about white South Africans who have never owned land? Are they excluded?

If so, Mantashe and his government are racists. Clearly this would be discriminatory.

The ANC is pandering to the EFF’s anarchist demands. It is singing from the same hymn sheet when in fact it should have started with an orderly programme of redistribution (to black and white) with land that is owned by the government.

The government should cease threatening whites with anarchy and move forward to make up for lost time.

Nathan Cheiman

Northcliff