– To change the ownership is a recipe for disaster, ” says Bethuel Ravele who runs a commune in partnership with a white farmer.
the South african leader was hailed across the globe when they are in the middle of the 1990s managed to avoid civil war and carnage during the transition from racial segregation to democracy. The economy was rescued by the white minority, was welcomed to remain and retain their assets in the country where their leaders oppressed the black majority.
Bethuel Ravele. Photo: Erik Esbjörnsson
But when south Africa is now celebrating 25 years of democracy is raised, more and more voices to the economic disparities – the largest (reported) in the world – to be offset by a radical land reform where white help to be denied compensation for lost land. The issue threatens to hurt the already wounded south african economy, but has no risk of the black majority’s patience is running out.
what will happen with the ground. Vänsterpopulistiska Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema requires the nationalization of companies and takeovers of farms without compensation. He summed up his message at a rally in Soweto a few days before the election:
” Political freedom is meaningless without economic freedom!
the ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has been given the issue in his knee after his party partly gave assent to the EFF’s initiative at the party conference in 2017.
said that the white, which constituted nearly ten percent of the population, would have the right to 87 per cent of all the land in south Africa while the black majority would be squeezed together at 13 per cent. The idea was partly to create space for white large farms, and partly to force the black population to the cities where the needs were great in the mines and other industries.
They never reached all the way but, even today, controlled 67 per cent of South africa’s surface area of 1.2 million square kilometers of white commercial agriculture, according to figures from the institute Plaas at the Western cape university.
Today’s reallocation programme is based on the state to go in and support the black villages who want to buy back their old areas. But the reform is slow, mainly because it will take 35 years to solve all ongoing disputes about the landägande in court.
the ANC to raise the issue of a faster process without compensation, but the new president Cyril Ramaphosa driver is not the question actively, then, his primary focus is the economy. He is afraid of increased demands for the nationalization of the assets and markövertagande without compensation.
On the farm grown macadamia nuts, bananas, lemons and avocados. Photo: Erik Esbjörnsson
In the Levubu valley in northern south Africa has come a long way. The village of Ravele, whose inhabitants were moved to a barren area ten miles to the east already in the 1930s, to prepare a place for the white large farmers in the tropical valley, was an early adopter and have already started in 1990 to prepare their legal claims of nearly 4.000 acres of land that they lost.
in 2004, had the black back 16 percent of the area. Now have a kind of community association formed by the village to administer the land. But there was a problem: they knew nothing about to carry on large farms.
– If you have got a car but does not have a licence, then you should not drive the car. And if the driver says that there is no mode to run if the view is not free, then you should not say to him to run, ” says klanledaren Bethuel Ravele.
flowing Limpopo river which forms the border to Zimbabwe and in neighboring countries had already begun to see the effects of millenieskiftets violent takeovers of white-factory farm. The zimbabwean economy was in tatters, and the farms taken over by young activists and old veterans from the war of independence lay in fallow. This development, they wanted to avoid at all costs. But at the same time was the expectations from the villagers high after markövertagandet.
On the farm grown macadamia nuts, bananas, lemons and avocados. Photo: Erik Esbjörnsson
– We decided to pursue it professionally. the Our association, have no right to interfere in the shops, but acts more as a holding company, ” says Bethuel Ravele.
the Village now owns a newly formed company which pays an annual lease and the money goes to supplement the student grant for 40 young people.
– Byadministrationen has become professional, and we help residents with proper certificate when going to the bank. But there is not a lot of money right now – the idea is that the business will grow with time and provide a greater return on investment, ” says Bethuel Ravele.
to be reinvested in agriculture. To help you Danie Basson, a white farmer who previously was a consultant to the government. Now he is an employee of Bethuel Raveles samhällighet against that he gets a portion of profit from agriculture.
“I fought in Angola,” says Danie Basson and crack open a macadamia nut with a hemmatillverkad weirder.
Danie Basson is an employee of Bethuel Raveles samhällighet.
Danie Basson looks like the stereotype of the black population, opponents of the landfrågan. A large khakiklädd boer, with heavy limbs over the years in the army claims to have learned just how important it was to avoid a large-scale civil war in south Africa in the 1990s. He turns up the bullet holes he received in battle.
“I understood that we had to build a new future in the country,” says Basson.
His white friends in agriculture call him for the ”K brother” for that today he is employed by black. K:et stands for ”kaffir”, the worst and most derogatory word about a black person in south Africa. Basson believes that the shared operation under the profit-sharing, with black ownership, is an appropriate compromise that allows the white, the knowledge is not lost from the sector.
” We need to move on and forget the past. My contribution in this is that I see that 400 people during a good season, have a job, ” says Danie Basson.
working 189 people on 350 acres of land. One of them is Joyce Netshiuhumbe, who pack bananas in one of the packhusen.
Joyce Netshiuhumbe, the foreman on the farm. Photo: Erik Esbjörnsson
“I am proud of my job,” says Netshiuhumbe who is the foreman on the farm.
She earns 4.000 rand, more than 2.600 per month, which is a bit above average.
Netshiuhumbe tells us that she had previously been difficult to feed a family no longer goes hungry and that children can engage in school properly.
All of the hire are recruited from the village but Bethuel Ravele is careful to explain to them that Basson must be the boss when they walk through the gates.
– Some thought they were shareholders, but it is the village that it is. When they are here, are the employees, period, ” says Ravele.
” It has slowed down over the years with Jacob Zuma. Corruption also became a part of the land reform. White sellers overvalued their properties, since they shared the surplus with the officer who was the officer in the case, ” he says.
Bethuel Ravele. Photo: Erik Esbjörnsson
the Villagers are still waiting for the remaining 84 percent of the land which their parents were deprived of in the 1930s. Yet it was the ANC that got Bethuel Raveles vote in the elections. The EFF’s policy, he is not giving very for the.
– They say to the supporters that only take the country. But how do you go to the bank and say you want a loan against this land that you have taken illegally? If you take someone’s land you can’t get loans to build houses.
Ravele, who is not a man of big gestures, turns also against the turned up the tone of the debate around the landfrågan. He says that strong emotions are a sign that it is time to calm down. Caution should be the watchword, ” he says.
” If they start to change a clause in the constitution, you risk to bend at all, mainly as regards the ownership. It is a recipe for disaster. Investors will not come here if there is no stability.
