Stop the forced removal of legal property owners

In South Africa crime is seen as a form of redistribution of property. The logic behind the reasoning of the "have-nots" illegally take the property of the "haves" is that Apartheid did them wrong and therefore they have the right to take the property of those who profited from it. 

At the birth of the democratic state the majority of South Africans were willing to reconcile and blend in as the Rainbow nation. However the lurking monsters of redistribution of land and wealth lay silently ready to raise their heads should the government not meet the expectations of the masses which now had a dream to own land and earn a decent living. The government set a target of handing over 30% of commercial farmland to the black majority by 2014 but failed miserably. Because of a lack of money today only 6% of land was transferred. Even worse President Zuma recently acknowledged that the land reform programmes implemented on the transferred land so far had not been sustainable. The reason being that no real post-transfer support is provided to resettled farming communities or trusts.

There is going to be an election soon and the administration of the country is in a mess. Municipal services in some areas are even non-existent. Rolling protests and violent unrest of the masses against poor services are increasingly becoming part of South African life. The three-week strike by Samwu members employed by Pikitup, Johannesburg's waste-management company, has left the city littered with uncollected refuse. On top of everything there is the threat made by SA Municipal Workers' Union that its 220 000 members would strike nationwide to force the government to meet its demands. One of these demands namely that President Jacob Zuma does not sign into law the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill, intended to depoliticise municipalities and ensure that they appoint skilled people, will wring the neck of the only possible solution to reinstate effective service delivery on a municipal level.

Government not being able to meet the needs of the masses is now turning to different strategies to access land for the landless and keep the masses satisfied. Julius Malema recently declared that land should be taken from owners without re-imbursement. The writing is on the wall for all the "haves" who own property and farmers are the specific targets. But farmers will fight for their 20% of the land to the bitter end because their ancestors paid for it dearly once before during the Anglo-Boer War when according to England's Scorched Earth policy farms were burnt to the ground, all farm animals killed and women and children forcefully removed to concentration camps. Thousands of men women and children (black and white designated and treated as Undesirables) died in a time span of less than three years at the hands of the British. More than 2000 were children. After the war the Boers thus had to rebuild the farms they paid for in their own blood from the ashes left.



But the silent process of using crime to force off owners from their property and illegal land invasions are already in full swing. Forced removal of farmers and owners of small holdings and houses in some city areas and in some towns results from the policy of Government to buy land without consulting the planning, development and management of these projects with adjoining property owners, and to settle as many as 3 000 homeless people in one small area (plus minus 40 ha) without providing them with any real support. The poor is therefore once again expected to pull themselves up on their shoe strings. But the reality is that they often do not have shoes let alone shoestrings. As could be expected these poor people who have nothing and who have no means of a legal income turn to crime to survive thus forcing property owners from their hard earned land and beseeching the property destroying everything in the name of redistribution, taking down the buildings piece by piece using doors, windows etc to build their own shacks. Hungry people will stop at nothing therefore the natural environment, all farm animals, even horses and dogs are targets to be killed and destroyed. This forced removal and farm murders leaves a trail of hardship, fear and anger behind that feeds the possibility of total anarchy and war. As early as 1993, the World Bank warned that if the government could not manage to bring about significant land transfers and viable economic changes to the poor the country would face the danger of escalating violence and possibly civil war.

We the undersigned
Failure of the Government to redistribute 30% of land to poor people as promised and provide them with viable economic opportunities results in land invasions and farm murders. Government not being able to meet the needs of the masses is now turning to different strategies to access land for the landless and keep the masses satisfied. Julius Malema recently declared that land should be taken from owners without re-imbursement. The writing is on the wall for all the "haves" who own property and farmers are the specific targets. Please help stop Government from settling Homeless people in farming areas without economic help and skills training. Economic viable farms are destroyed by this irrational land distribution policy and once outstanding agricultural projects are turned into squatter camps by those who want to occupy land but who are not able to use it productively. These actions result in an escalation of crime, farm murders and illegal land invasions that could lead to anarchy and civil war.
 
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