Readers’Views

Zimbabwe’s farmers should not allow themselves to be conned

The article “Union happy white farmers to be paid” (April 14) unfortunately misses some of the core issues that Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers’ Union should have concerned themselves with.

With the rate of inflation now at a reported 59%, the 10% payment for the value of land improvements in an obviously plastic RTGS currency will be next to worthless within a short space of time. Not to mention the rather important outstanding 90%.

As a fellow farmer, it does not come across as a very favourable deal to me.

However, the biggest shortfall rests with the experience of landowners in the Eastern bloc countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Those landowners who accepted a mere pittance in settlement for their land and improvements ultimately sacrificed their rights to title when sanity finally prevailed. Title was forfeited on the acceptance of compensation, however frugal. The landowners who held firm eventually had their land and assets (or what was left of these) returned to them.

The sensible advice would therefore be to resist the temptation and not to be conned by a sinister political ploy solely intended to warm the hearts of gun-shy foreign investors. Sadly, what we are dealing with is another Robert Mugabe in extremely shallow disguise.

A R Viljoen, Elgin

I doubt that any amount of money can fairly and adequately compensate those farmers (including my wife's family and friends) whose land was stolen, not to mention the many others who have suffered from the consequent destruction of Zimbabwe.

And it seems the geniuses who pretend to govern SA are determined not to heed the lessons which should have been learnt from this disaster. Geoff Smailes, on Businesslive.co.za

Delaying the inevitable

The article “Relying on Eskom no longer viable” (Newsmaker, April 14), refers. The South African Local Government Association’s Nhlanhla Ngidi is quoted as saying: “We are concerned that there is no pronouncement around what should happen about the energy industry because we’ve all realised it is not going in the direction it should be in terms of its sustainability.”

There is no announcement because rectification of the problem means reversal of ANC policies.

In the meantime, we borrow money wherever we can to throw at the problem and delay the inevitable, while growing a pile of debt.

Derek Salzmann, on Businesslive

Time running out for SA

The ANC will win the upcoming general election with a reduced majority. It will have only two years’ grace to rectify SA’s problems. Should it fail, the EFF will win all the metros in the next municipal elections.

The masses are tired of empty promises. The country is in crisis, and service delivery has come to a complete halt. The economy is breaking at its seams.

The disparity in wealth will ultimately lead to a conflict of immense proportions that will inevitably lead to the complete collapse of SA. Time is running out. Farouk Araie, Johannesburg