Has anyone read "The Great South African Land Scandal"??

[gsvol]

Here is my cliff notes version with the complete foreword and excerpts from each chapter:

oops; got this message; The text that you have entered is too long (297588 characters). Please shorten it to 10000 characters long.

Soo, I'll include just the foreword and then add the chapters one or two at a time later if there is any interest. There is a link to the whole book under the title.



THE GREAT SOUTH AFRICAN LAND SCANDAL
The Great South African Land Scandal

FOREWORD (Part I of II parts)

This book cried out to be written.

Stories about the collapse of farms
handed over to emerging farmers under
the government’s land reform program
have circulated for some time. But over
the last two years, the desecration of
some of South Africa’s productive farmland
has increased to such an extent that land
is being taken out of production at an
alarming rate.

The ominous element in the picture is:
where will it end? Now that the government
has given itself powers to expropriate
land at will, for whatever purpose, will
the end of this destruction ever be in sight?

Concerned farmers are supporting the
publication of this book. They see first
hand every day the results of the government’s
land restitution program. Occasionally one
reads about these catastrophes in newspapers.
Some television actuality programs feature
farms which have been destroyed after a
handover. But there appears to have been
no concerted effort by anyone to actually
investigate the outcome of these transactions,
both for the benefit of the public which paid
for the land, and in light of the broader
problem of decreasing food production in the
country.

In most cases, at least as far as newspapers
are concerned, handovers are depicted with
exuberance by reporters. Pictures of people
toyi-toying after receiving title deeds to
their ancestral land are complemented by
gratuitous individual stories of people
returning to “the land of their birth”. In
many instances, this is not the case. In any
event, why haven’t questions been asked one
or two years down the line about what became
of this joyous transfer? Some follow ups occur,
but not many. And they are journalists’ probes,
not government assessments.

This is not a scientific book in the sense
that every single land claim transaction has
been investigated. Indeed, we have just started.
Perhaps this book should be called Volume One.
There appear to be hundreds of examples of farm
collapses after restitution. We didn’t have the
resources to hire an army of researchers to search
and account for every farm which has been lost
to production, or has been turned into a squatter
camp.

But we have garnered enough evidence, at least
as a start, to realize that there is a very
ominous and ultimately calamitous trend afoot
in South Africa, the results of which could
seriously undermine food production.

Our researchers were in some instances part time.
But they were dedicated and had the advantage of
knowing the South African agricultural sector well.
Opening one door led to other doors, and a picture
emerged which differed little from one end of
South Africa to the other. There were no examples
found where the conditions existing on the farm
at the time of transfer had either been maintained
or improved, without the help of outsiders. In some
instances, those to whom the farm had belonged
helped the new owners. Other examples revealed
white managers brought in quietly after production
started to wobble.

In many cases, the beneficiaries were left to
their own devices. Some recipients really wanted
to farm but received little or no assistance.
In other situations, a committee representing
“the tribe” simply took over the farm, awarding
themselves large salaries while carrying on with
their lives somewhere else. The workers “ran”
the farm until something broke, then the rot set
in. Operating capital simply disappeared on
salaries, 4 x 4 vehicles and travel expenses,
with workers eventually demonstrating in a nearby
town for back salaries.

One researcher was shot at by an angry chief,
while another was told he must make written
application to visit a ailed land reform farm
which, in reality, belongs to the taxpayers.
He went anyway. There was nobody at the gate,
and a detailed examination was made of the farm
without anyone even asking who he was!

This is not a definitive history of who is
ultimately entitled to what land in South
Africa. There are dozens of academic sources
where the origins of land ownership can be
quoted, and counter-argued. This book is
concerned about agricultural production in
the last nation in Africa which is self-
sufficient in food. We don’t want another
Zimbabwe. If 35 000 commercial farmers produce
enough food for the people of Southern Africa,
why take their farms?

We discovered a number of outrageous land
claims – some based on hearsay, others which
overlapped as different tribal warlords fought
for the same piece of turf. Some claims were
simply lies, while others claimed ground for
which they had already been compensated. The
existence of graves was another reason for
land claims.

An important heritage site has been claimed,
not by people whose tribal forefathers lived
on the ground, but by people whose forefathers
were taken in by the missionaries who created
the site, to escape warring tribal chiefs.
Through the grace and charity of these
missionaries, they were allowed to stay and
their children were born at the mission. Now
their descendants are claiming the heritage
site!

Under what duress do South African farmers
operate? They pay taxes for security, yet
they conduct their own policing. Many operate
in the most violent environment - outside of
a war - in the world.

We examine how land claims have affected
operating farmers, why they can’t sell, or
obtain a bank loan. Many have been driven
off their farms by invaders and intimidation.
They have turned the key on a lifetime of work.
Others have been threatened with death. More
than 1 500 have been brutally murdered since
1994, in many instances without anything being
stolen.

[gsvol]

Part II:

Stock and crop theft are endemic. Aged farmers
sit out all night against a tree, shotgun cocked,
to catch the corn thieves. Others go into dangerous
locations to find their stolen stock because police
assistance is simply not available. Farmers pay
handsomely for private security, but those supposed
to be guarding their property are themselves
intimidated and flee..

South Africa can do without its advertising
agencies and retail boutiques and horse racing,
but it cannot do without its farmers. If matters
continue as they are, and productive farms are
handed over to people who cannot farm and who do
not want to farm, then we are on the Zimbabwe
slippery slope. South African farmers are taxed
to the hilt. They have high input costs, and they
receive very little in the way of relief from the
government. They are harassed by human rights
investigators, and they are the subject of vicious
propaganda.

In a covert way, it appears the SA government
has come to realize that handing over a farm
to subsistence farmers is a failure, but they
are slow to admit this. Instead, they quietly
bring in managers and consultants who rectify
– if possible – the damage done, and the
patched-up project is again given to the same
beneficiaries. A further stratagem is to bring
in “mentors” who assist black farmers on a daily
basis, checking everything and in effect running
the farm. There is also the new lease-back policy.
But there are inherent problems with these policies.
Why not let those who can farm continue to produce
the food to feed the millions in Southern Africa?

There are many black farmers who have made a
success of ventures, and they are lauded for
their hard work, and for the risks they have
taken. Neighbouring white farmers are only too
happy to assist. But some black farmers obtained
loans from the Land Bank, then used their newly-
acquired farms as taxi repair depots.

There are alarming signs that no commercial
farm is safe in South Africa. At one meeting
between land claimants and commercial farmers,
the claimants told the farmers “Just give us
your title deeds. Then you can work for us”.
What is really sought by many claimants is a
productive farm which someone else will run
so that a large salary and profits can be taken
from the operation without too much effort.

Some farmers could not talk to us for fear of
reprisals. One farmer was scared to death. His
farm is next to a huge squatter camp. He told
us he had to keep quiet “so I can at least get
something for my farm from the Department of
Land Affairs”. His farm contains a R1 million
dairy operation, but nobody wants to buy his
farm. He is trying to get whatever price he
can from the government. It is too dangerous
for him to stay on the property. He has already
moved his family to town, and appointed a manager.

In one area of KwaZulu Natal, the farming
community has been reduced from 56 to 14.
In another part of the province, trenches
have been dug to stop stock theft. Cruelty
to farm animals turns one’s stomach. Some
farmers have to resort to witchcraft to find
their cattle. Farmer Piet de Jager of Levubu
told an agricultural magazine he wouldn’t give
up his farm. He’d worked for the farm all his
life, he was 69, and “what will I do with my
life without my farm?” Two weeks after the
published interview, he was shot to death in
his garden, a few metres from his house, his
wife and his grandchildren. Nothing was stolen.

This book is not the beginning. The story
started many years ago. I grew up on a cattle
ranch on the border of Botswana and South Africa.
When my father’s farm was expropriated by the
old National Party government under the homelands
scheme, he died of a stroke. I submitted a claim
for the return of this farm in November 1998 but
have heard nothing from the government. To date,
more than 900 land claims have been submitted to
the government by whites and Indians, people
whose farms were taken by the previous government.

By highlighting in a small way the heritage
which the white farming sector brought to South
Africa, we in no way wish to ignore the many black,
coloured and Indian farmers who have also struggled,
who are also beset with stock and crop theft,
intimidation and, at times, assaults. Few
acknowledge the contribution to this country of
its small band of commercial farmers of all races,
and we believe it’s time to tell their story. And
why not? Everybody else’s story has been told!

Cry the beloved country indeed! If many blacks
cannot make it as commercial farmers, it is well
to remember that most whites are not farmers either.
Farming is a highly specialized, risky business.
One simply cannot “resign” from farming and get
another job. It is a holistic profession, and the
land is an emotive element in the equation.

Most of us are “landless”, in the literal sense
of the word. The 12% of arable land in this
country is very fragile. South Africa is not a
farming friendly country. Productive farmland has
been built up over many years and must not be
destroyed with impunity. We believe jobs, not
land, are what people want. They need a roof
over their head, and education for their children.

Destroying good farms is a lose-lose situation,
for all of us.

This book is a joint effort between myself and
our team of researchers. It will be sent all
over the world. South Africans should read it
with concern. They take so much for granted -
the full supermarkets, the mountains of fruit
and vegetables, the steaks, the chops, the
boerewors (literally, the ‘Boer sausage’ - the
staple sausage in South Africa.) All of this
comes from less than .01% of our population –
35 000 farmers who provide for South Africa’s
45 million people. South Africans must resist
the senseless transfer of land for ideological
reasons.

Dr. Philip du Toit, South Africa, 25 December 2003.

[gsvol]

excerpts Chapter I: (will take two posts)

Chapter I THE LETSITELE VALLEY,

Paradise is where the devil does his damnedest.

“Don’t even talk about logic in this part of the world”.

So declared pioneer farmer Mike Amm as we walked
towards his small holding high in the mountains outside Tzaneen. He was one of seven farmers who sold their farms in this beautiful valley to the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) for land restitution purposes.

Over the past two years, he has observed with dismay how the farms he and his family spent their lifetimes building up, have crumbled and decayed to the point where they have been placed under judicial management.

The word “management” is something of a misnomer, as nothing is happening on these farms. One of Amm’s farms, Murlebrook, was a prime producer of avocados, mangoes, paw paws, bananas, citrus fruits and macadamia nuts.

Amm shows us his large file on the debacle he has chronicled on the demise of his family farm. The file contains the history of the farm and how it was claimed. He wants to get the message out to what he feels is an uncaring South Africa. “Tell South Africa what is happening to agriculture in this country,” he pleads. His letters, exhortations and suggestions to the new owners are all there - offers to assist with business plans, or any assistance the new owners might want - are open-heartedly offered by a man who cares about South Africa and the country’s agricultural production. He is deeply worried about agriculture’s end game.

Nothing would have pleased this farmer more than to have helped keep Murlebrook alive, even if he didn’t own the farm any more. But his endeavours were ignored. Indeed, he and his fellow farmers in the area were told in no uncertain terms that the new owners would “go it alone”.

A report in the local Letaba Herald of February 2001 shows the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms. Thoko Didiza, signing the R43 million land agreement for the purchase of the Letsitele Valley farms, while Limpopo MEC for Agriculture and Land Administration, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, looks on.

Three thousand people attended the taxpayer-funded shindig which followed the signing. The celebrations were about the restitution of 1 400 ha of land in the valley (the seven commercial farms) to the Mamathola tribe.

The newspaper report declares that “in terms of the government’s Land Restitution Act, the Mamathola had successfully claimed the land on the grounds that the 13 farms involved had formerly belonged to their ancestors but were taken over by white settlers. (Yes, “settlers” was the word used for white South African citizens whose ancestors came to South Africa around the same time as American citizens’ ancestors arrived in North America).

The Limpopo MEC for Agriculture Dr. Motsoaledi then stated it was critical that “whites must adapt to the wind of change or die. No one will kill them but if they cannot adapt they will just cease to live,” he remarked. He then went on to say the government had established an Agriculture College to train those who want to run farms.

Speaking on behalf of the departing white owners, Mrs. Maggie Baleta said it was a disappointing experience for them to leave farms on which some of them had lived and worked for 43 years. She said these farms generated a turnover in excess of R15 million a year and that “the tribe would need good planning and dedication to ensure that they remained economically viable for all”.

She said the farmers were willing to help the tribe manage the resettlement of farms and to work together for the economic development of the area.

In reply, the claimants’ committee chairman Mr. Chiko Letsoalo expressed confidence in their ability to run the farms on their own without assistance from previous white owners.

“We are surprised about stories that we or the government would enter into partnership with the current owners so as not to lose the benefit of their expertise. We have already sent people to agricultural colleges to learn more about farming. We will run these farms through our own expertise”, he declared.

He said the tribe would “restructure” the farming operations. His tribe were given R4,5 million as operating capital.

The arrogance of this group of people is, in hindsight, only exceeded by their ignorance and incompetence. Their “going it alone” has resulted in the complete collapse of these farms, while Ms. Didiza, to all intents and purposes, has remained silent about her colossal failure in this regard.

Let us examine this land claim so that South Africa’s taxpayers, who paid for this land and donated the operating capital, can examine the processes of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) and judge for themselves. Let it be said here that the Letsitele experience has occurred right throughout South Africa, with few variations. Some of the disasters are monumental, others not so grand but ominous nonetheless, because they expose a critical flaw in South Africa’s land “reform” process, a process which seems to have been ignored by those organizations we thought would have been the first to examine just where this policy would ultimately take South Africa.

At the headwaters of the Letsitele River lay a farm called Mamathola 635 which was also known as Mamathola’s Location, and is marked on old maps. This land measuring approximately 1 500 ha had been allocated to the Mamathola people some years before.

This community worked on neighbouring farms and existed on “slash and burn” subsistence agriculture. It is well known that this type of land use is extremely degrading to the environment. The land had become almost completely denuded through over-grazing and other destructive forms of land use. After even light rainfalls, the Letsitele River would turn a red colour from the soil-eroded areas on Mamathola 635. Aerial photographs of that period bear witness to this fact.

During the 1940’s, the government under the United Party’s Jan Smuts was alerted to this deteriorating situation and was requested to take action. For years debate raged in Parliament regarding this issue. And all the while the situation worsened.

Around 1956, the government decided to move the community from Mamathola’s location to two farms in the Trichardtsdal area. The farms “Metz” and “Enable” totaling approximately 7 000 ha were allocated to the tribe. Most of the people moved willingly although a few moved with reluctance.

It should be emphasized that the Mamathola community were not moved for political, but for conservation reasons. The community was more than adequately compensated in terms of land area, buildings, social infrastructure, roads, and so forth.

Mamathola 635 was then handed over to the Department of Forestry to rehabilitate the land. This step proved to be timeous and within a few years the land at the headwaters of the Letsitele River started to recover environmentally. Streams became stabilized and began flowing more cleanly and constantly. Eroded areas began slowly to recover vegetatively. But even to this day, the scars caused by the tribe’s destructive practices can still be seen.

Had the government of the day not removed those who were destroying the headwaters of the valley and surrounds (to whit, the Mamathloa tribe), there would be nothing there today upon which they could exist, let alone claim back as a viable concern.

Things changed in the early nineties, according to local people. The unbanning of Nelson Mandela and the cries for land for the landless led to the 1994 and subsequent land legislation after the ANC came to power. The people were promised land and were given the opportunity to claim land from which they felt they had been forcibly removed.

Certain parameters were laid down as to what would constitute a valid claim. For example, if compensation had been paid then a claim against that same land would be invalid. (In the Mamathola land claim case, this was totally ignored, but we will come to that later).

Never in their wildest dreams did farmers in the area we interviewed realize that productive farms would collapse so spectacularly, and that the government would seemingly ignore what farmers believed were logical requests to leave South Africa’s productive farms alone, and utilize other sources of land to grant to the landless.

This thought is echoed throughout South Africa. Why in Heaven’s name hand over a productive farm to those who really don’t want to farm it and, in many instances, to people who firmly believe the operation will continue producing a healthy income without any hard work, risk or capital input?

Why indeed! As Amm declared, logic doesn’t come into it, and this is the dark side of land reform. It is actually not reform. In many cases, it is destruction, and the perils in store for South Africa’s agricultural production cannot be overstated.

In May 2000, a group of valley farmers received a letter from the Land Claims Commission stating that a claim on their portions of the farm Mamathola 609 had been gazetted, and that they were to appear at a meeting in Tzaneen to discuss the issue.

At the meeting the farm owners declared the claim was invalid because there had been no forced removal from Mamathola 609 which lay several kilometers from Mamathola’s location (or 635).

But the chairman of the meeting, Mr. Phogiso Molapo, retorted that the farmers’ argument would carry little weight because the community would claim their cattle would have grazed over the whole area of the Letsitele Valley anyway! Amm declares this statement alone made a mockery of the whole land claims process.

[VolunteerHillbilly]

I met a few expatriated South Afrikaners in the 1990s. They told some of the most horrific tales I have heard in my lifetime, although I had no way to weigh the veracity of their stories. If what I heard was true, I'd have to opine that those who only lose land are fairly lucky.

[orangeblooded2]

I wonder what the estimated oil reserves are in south Africa.Their have been published reports of huge oil fields in other locations in Africa.

[gsvol]

part 2 chapter I:

Further, the land claim forms were full of inaccuracies. The claimants admitted that they had been compensated, but said the new land was “too small”. (They received 7 000 ha to replace 1 500 ha). They said the new farm “was far from their graves” but there were no graves on the original piece of property. They also said they had to build new houses, churches, schools, etc. but these were in fact built for them when they moved, with taxpayers’ money. They also declared they received little compensation for their orange plants, but they were paid one pound a tree. According to people who knew the situation at that time, these trees had been in any case stolen from farmers in the area!

The Amm family left with a heavy heart. Mike and Monica had lived on the farm Murlebrook for 43 years, raised five children and built what they called “a bit of paradise” from nothing. Amm says his type of farming is highly technical and requires 24-hour attention. The Banareng ba ga Letsoalo committee (the name under which the land claims were made) was elected to run the farm on behalf of the tribes. Not one person on this committee had agricultural knowledge or background.

The Banareng ba ga Letsoalo land claim was ostensibly for 1 500 people to return to their original land. As it later turned out, none of these people returned at all. The committee was appointed to represent them, and this committee would “run” the farm on behalf of the tribe. The committee, as it also turned out, didn’t run the farm at all – they had meetings, of course, but most had businesses elsewhere. One was a panel beater from Hammanskraal (he was the treasurer). Another was a teacher, one was a clerk and the other unemployed. The chairman worked in a bookshop and still works for a publisher. He occupied the 4-bedroomed farmhouse. Nobody from the committee was born in the area. Most are believed to come from Pretoria.

This committee awarded themselves over R12 000 a month each, and went through the operating capital of R4,5 million like a hot knife through butter. They called themselves the “management team” but nothing was managed. The labour continued to work the farm until the pumps broke, or a machine broke down. These were not repaired. Then there was no money for spraying, and soon salary payments were in arrears.

This ultimately resulted in the farm workers marching five kilometres to the farm office where they toyi-toyi’d and presented a memorandum of grievances. This was February 2003, just 24 months after the newspaper report where DLA Minister Didiza told the world the beneficiaries of the handover would “go it alone”, and that the project would prove to the world that black farmers were not lazy and that they were indeed capable of running a farm.

Labour grievances included the late payment of salaries, the incompetence of management, no production bonuses, and threats and undermining of workers’ representatives. The manager of the farm committee Ismael Letsoalo said he couldn’t pay salaries because he hadn’t received the “additional funds” he’d requested from the Limpopo Regional Land Claims Commission.

Our researcher and a local farmer requested permission from the judicial manager of the farm to visit Murlebrook. (His role as judicial manager was defined by someone local as “making sure nothing is stolen”.) On their way to the farm, the team was telephonically contacted and told the local Land Claims Commissioner wanted a written application to visit the farm, and that there was no guarantee permission would be granted. As they were on their way anyway, the team continued. On arrival, they simply walked in. The judicial “manager” did not appear while the team inspected the farm, taking photos and talking to a few people who were sitting around at the entrance.

The team found avocado trees dying of thirst. While the farm dam was full, the pipes from the dam were broken - there was apparently no money to fix them. The trees’ leaves had curled up and were sunburnt. It was too late to save those beautiful trees. The mango trees’ spring blossoms were out, but these trees were not watered either. The papayas hung from dry trunks, while grass and weeds grew between the expertly laid out plantation rows.

Said our researcher: “It was criminal to see such waste, such desolation. Three state-of-the-art packing sheds were empty, loose crates lying about. There was not a soul to be seen. Electricity had been cut off so the cool rooms didn’t work. We left and moved to the next farm. Nobody stopped us as we drove across a stream (yes, this was a farm where a river ran through it!), but the stream was polluted with plastic bags, pieces of rusting equipment, rubble. Desolation had set in here too. The farmhouse looked forlorn and a cultivated garden had disappeared into weeds and sparse long grass.

We came to a packing shed. A black gentleman was at the gate and we asked for the farmer, the owner. Oh, you mean Mr. Mtetwa (not his real name!). He’s not here. He doesn’t live here. He lives in town. Then what happens here, we asked. Well, we’ve still got some bananas, the watchman declared. But they’re small. They’re for the bakkie (Afrikaans for a pick-up vehicle) trade.

We’d learnt what to look for in neglected banana plantations, the un-pruned, uncared-for trees. They are left to sprout many smaller shoots which grow from the trunk, and smaller bananas result. The bunches were not covered with plastic to protect them from the burning sun.

We couldn’t help noticing the difference between these pigmy fruits and the large bananas which Gauteng consumers paid R1 59 per kilo for in late 2003. Each tree is pruned, and the bunches are covered with blue plastic bags which hold in the moisture while deflecting the suns’ burning rays.

These beautiful plantations roll on and on for kilometers right throughout the sub-tropical and lowveld areas of South Africa, and one wonders at the mentality of a government whose policies would destroy this immaculate farming and replace it with subsistence “bakkie trade” production.

As we drove through this once beautiful farm, we came upon neglected macadamia groves. Thousands and thousands of macadamia nuts lay under the trees, unharvested. These are the most expensive nuts on the market: South Africa’s macadamia export production goes mainly to the United States where consumers can afford them. In South Africa, they are priced at R110,00 a kilo.

The trees had not been pruned and the ground underneath had not been cleared. Further on, a citrus orchard’s trees gasped for water in the searing heat. These “ghost farms” are appearing all over South Africa.

Arrogance and ignorance are a lethal concoction. When people don’t know what they don’t know, the results are catastrophic. Soon after the 2001 takeover of the Letsitele farms, the general secretary of the farm’s committee admitted that “one of the big problems in taking over these farms was that the previous owners tended to be managers as well, and that left a management gap that we are still trying to fill.” However, he continued, “we have sent people to agricultural college to learn more about farming and we are confident in our ability to run these farms on our own”.

Did Minister Didiza know about this paucity of knowledge, experience and management before she handed over taxpayer-funded farms? If she didn’t, why didn’t she find out? Why didn’t she at least check up on the progress of the management committee? After all, this was funded with public money. And what about the production loss to the country?

Two years later, this same secretary complained that the government didn’t assist them with a business plan and a training program. (But a business plan had been set up, although not utilized.) He complained that the government should have sent them Agricultural Extension Officers (AEO). From the time of the handover, only three “managers” of the original committee were left, the whole R4,5 million operating capital had disappeared, the labourers only received R310,00 per month (what about the minimum wages which the government insists all commercial farmers should pay their staff?), while the last of the mangoes were so diseased they had to be thrown away. The farm’s previous owner’s fertilizer and spray programs were highly effective, but no spraying had taken place because of mismanagement.

The farming equipment which had been handed over in pristine condition was virtually unusable, but the R12 000 a month salaries were still taken until the farm operation was placed under judicial management!

An arboretum of more than 200 indigenous trees – each individually marked – was painstakingly created by Monica Amm on the family farm. Called the Matumi Botanical Garden, the trees and an accompanying nursery attracted visitors from all over the world.

[gsvol]

Chapter I part 3, end.

The Amms called a meeting in June 2001 at which members of the new farm management committee and people from the Limpopo departments of Environment and Agriculture were present. The meeting was to discuss the continuance of the arboretum as an eco-tourism project, and to give the meeting the assurance that the Amms would do everything in their power to assist in the further development of the nursery as well as the arboretum.

The nursery could produce indigenous trees and medicinal plants, for which a ready market already existed. There was adequate irrigation to maintain the nursery. (The Amms and their family are the only South African members of the International Dendrology Association, while Mike Amm is a well-known and accomplished amateur botanist.)

Everyone was positive and promised to report back. Today the arboretum is dry and neglected, and nobody maintains the nursery which has virtually disappeared. The electric fencing doesn’t work. Needless to say, there was no comeback from the provincial government departments. It is a tragedy that even today, overseas tourists still come to look for the famous arboretum, which is no more.

These farms were among the best in the world. Mike Amm’s farm alone contained 100 000 trees. A dam he built was the biggest in the district. The farms contained sophisticated irrigation equipment, and the thousands of trees were nurtured to world standards. The rainfall average in the area is 1 000 mm per annum. (Consider that the average rainfall in most of South Africa is 464 mm against a world average of 857 mm). Permanent mountain streams run through many of the valley’s properties and the dams are well sited, with gravity irrigation from some. The farm valuer declared in his official valuation that the farms were situated in an area “with abundant water”.

The climate is sub-tropical and frost free with average summer temperatures of 290C and 230C during winter. The soil in the area is predominantly a sandy loam type, very fertile and with excellent drainage capacity. According to a professional valuer, “the Letsitele Valley can be regarded as one of the best farming areas in the country mainly due to climate and soil factors, but also because of the professional way farmers run their businesses”.

(Less than 12% of South Africa’s land is suitable for cultivation. Twenty one percent of the country has a total rainfall of less than 200 mm annually, 48% between 200 mm and 600 mm, while only 31% records more than 600 mm.)

The Amms left a beautiful house they built themselves, a manager’s house, a separate flat, staff quarters, a reservoir, boreholes, irrigation systems, three packing sheds and sophisticated farm equipment. They watched their years of work eroded because of a fallacious land claim, and because the SA government did not even stick to its own rules when granting this claim. More importantly, there had been no follow up programs to ensure that all went well.

It is not as if the government wasn’t warned. The Letaba Herald ran an article in September 2000 expressing grave misgivings about the handover of the valley farms to DLA recipients. The paper said that there were signs that the government’s land reform policy could become a “sword of Damocles” over the country’s agricultural economy. People in the area had seen the disastrous destruction of the Zebediela and other citrus estates after they were given to inexperienced recipients. Millions of rands were lost not only in the price paid to the exiting farmers, but in the huge deficits in export sales, and in the taxes which could have been generated from these productive farms. Now the same thing was about to occur in Letsitele.

The paper continued: “Inexperienced, inadequately funded people who move onto currently white-owned farms could eventually find themselves in a morass of debt, unemployment and the inability to even produce food for themselves at a sustainable rate.” Unfortunately, these premonitions and fears were not repeated in the national press.

The Herald noted that the valley’s “3 000 ha or so of intensive citrus, mango, avocado, banana and papaya orchards bring in tens of millions of rands in foreign currency every year and support a labour force of between 2 000 and 3 000 black workers, plus their families. Now its continued existence as a world-recognized agricultural gem is being threatened by separate, even conflicting, Land Restitution Act claims on white-owned farms in the valley. It’s a recipe for shambles. There are only going to be losers, not winners.”

Asked what would be the most likely scenario if the farms were handed over as going concerns to the claimants, Amm referred to the history of two once-productive farms in the valley which had been bought by the old homeland Lebowa government for tribal occupation.

One became derelict and was then leased to a white farmer who lived well off it for 20 years and employed 400 people. In 1999, his lease expired and he left, leaving his farm improvements intact.

Just one year later, the farm has sank back to its original dilapidated state. Squatters moved in, fences torn down and irrigation piping was stolen. The mangoes became sick and the trees planted for windbreaks were chopped down for firewood. Four hundred people lost their jobs.

The other was the well-known Rolf Flowers operation which had a capital-intensive infrastructure and employed hundreds of people on its 100 ha. It was purchased from Rolf Flowers by the government in the early nineties (it bordered on one of the traditional lands) and today stands forlorn, with its buildings vandalized and its equipment ransacked.

Everything which could be stolen has already been taken, and nothing is going on. There seems little concern by the powers that be about the waste of taxpayers’ money for this purchase. The only move the government has apparently made is to employ security guards to protect what remains from further vandalization.

Said one farmer we spoke to: “Every single person, black or white, in the Letaba district is dependent in one way or another on agriculture. It should not be allowed to go into decline. In the broader sense, the rich, productive valley could be lost to the South African economy. There will be no winners, only losers!”

How prescient he was. But nobody was listening, least of all the arrogant and the ignorant for whose sins the whole of South Africa must pay.

Now that the government has given itself powers to expropriate property throughout South Africa at will, it needs no fertile imagination to think what will happen to the productive farms upon which Minister Didiza will set her sights. There’s nothing stopping her, except of course a dearth of food in South Africa’s shops, no surplus grain to send to friends across the Limpopo, no taxes from bankrupt and destroyed farms, and no foreign currency to be earned from agricultural exports.

When a government sets out to force through a policy on ideological grounds, without pause to assess what has happened to previous land transfers, then it is criminally responsible for whatever disasters await us in the future.

[OrangeEmpire]

[gsvol]

Originally Posted by VolunteerHillbilly

I met a few expatriated South Afrikaners in the 1990s. They told some of the most horrific tales I have heard in my lifetime, although I had no way to weigh the veracity of their stories. If what I heard was true, I'd have to opine that those who only lose land are fairly lucky.

Here is some information that validates the stories you were told. I have a great deal more material on the topic.

Mandelas, hammer and sickle with KGB colonel and then-
South African Communist Party leader Joe Slovo, giving
communist salute in front of Soviet flag..



http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...&ct=image&cd=1

Since the overthrow of the white government, we have
seen an astronomic increase in rape, robbery and murder
sweep South Africa. Murders of police officers, now of
course mainly black are the highest in the world.
There are 150 rapes and 50 murders daily. In 2005
there were 571,000 new cases of AIDS, or about 1564
cases a day, with six times more women infected than
men. When the Africans had taken charge of the
government due to both their lack of ability and
absence of white men, the EU had to rescue the
situation with a $102 million in loans. Which due
to lack of progress had to be written off over a
thirteen year period. The black government and the
parasites who have asset stripped the country have
between them turned South Africa, once a first division
country into a violent diseased hell-hole. The country
is now populated principally by unfortunates who can't
get out and visiting bandits and speculators, who like
vultures have come to pick over the remains.
-----------------------------------------------

Killing all the white caucasian people in communist South Africa
Farm Murders
(vivid photography)

Note: The photos you see on this page are of true
farm attacks out in the rural areas. Murders which
take place on plots are not included here. This could
account for some discrepancies in various figures.
The figures given below EXCLUDE attacks on smallholdings
and plots:-

BRUTAL MURDERS ON FARMS: THE TOTAL PICTURE 1991-2001
Year Attacks Murders
1991 327 66
1992 365 63
1993 442 84
1994 442 92
1995 551 121
1996 468 109
1997 434 84
1998 827 145
1999 834 136
2000 902 142
Jan-Oct 2001 809 106
TOTAL 6401 1148

Note: Farm attacks have increased since 1994, when
the Mandela's ANC came to power.

All the photos you see on this page are white people
who were murdered or attacked by blacks. Kindly note,
our government falls over itself to spread news across
the world when a Police dog attacks a black man. They
then shout RACIST! RACIST! At the top of their voices.
The trained Police dog does not even draw blood. They
find this, and parade it as a white hate crime against
a black. Now come and take a look at a very small
sampling of black hate crimes on whites and compare
them. Note, these are often committed by fit young
black men - often against the very old or against
women or children. As I say in my book, our new leaders
are the most racist people in the country. They want
race hatred. They love it. It is the only thing that
gives them a reason to exist. They are incapable of
doing anything positive for the country so all they
can do is beat that worn old racist drum of theirs
and remind everyone that all our problems are supposedly
caused by whites! It is that sort of talk which encourages
and leads to crimes of the sort you will see on this page.
--------------------------------------------------------

Genocide of whites by the racist marxist regime of south africa
http://www.100megspop2.com/crimebusters/FarmVictims.html

The mass slaughter of our South African farmers and their workers
must stop. The murder rate amongst this sector our SA society
stands at 313 per 100,000 - the highest for any sector.
..............

You have a 90% chance of getting by with murder in South Africa
Articles

Members of his courageous farming community caught the
culprits, but they “escaped” from the local police cells.

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton heads Genocide Watch. He says the
slaughter of 2000 Boers is genocide. (One wonders why
"Carte Blanche" drastically underreported the number of
murdered Boers, pegging it at 1400 all told, when back in
January of 2006, Genocide Watch reported a total of 1820
murders.) The rates at which the farmers are being eliminated,
the torture and dehumanization involved—all point to systematic
extermination.

“Genocide is always organized, usually by the state,”
Stanton has written on Genocide Watch’s website. Indeed,
according to Sky News, the farmers believe “these attacks
are an orchestrated, government sanctioned attempt to purge
South Africa of white land owners, as has already happened
in Zimbabwe.” Consequently, Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket
of Africa, is now its dust bowl. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s
Marxist President, is greatly admired by Thabo Mbeki, South
Africa’s strongman, and head of the African National Congress.

[OrangeEmpire]

[gsvol]

Originally Posted by orangeblooded2

I wonder what the estimated oil reserves are in south Africa.Their have been published reports of huge oil fields in other locations in Africa.

The height of irony is that the author of the
Church Street bomb, Aboobaker Ismail, has been
rewarded by his appointment as head of security
at the Reserve Bank in Pretoria, the same bank
where a British subject, Ian Plenderleith, holds
the position of Deputy Governor in an unprecedented
move in modern history where one country’s central
bank is partially controlled by a non-national.


(Comment by gs; not really true, our central bank, the federal reserve is and has been since 1913, owned by 60% foreign interests.)

On the East Rand, the notorious terrorist Robert
McBride, who murdered three innocent women and
injured another 73 civilians during the Magoo’s
Bar bombing in Durban on 14 June 1986, has been
appointed as head of the metropolitan police force.
The ANC is synonymous with outrage, either through
its many half—truths and lies about South African
history, or in its appointments of former terror
operatives to high government posts.

Above in this post is excerpted from;

Dan Roodt holds a Ph.D. from the University of the
Witwatersrand and a D.E.A. from the Université de
Paris VIII (Vincennes/St. Denis). He is a well-known
novelist and Afrikaner commentator who has played a
leading role in what has become known over the past
four years as the “Third Afrikaans Language Struggle.”

-------------------------------------------

THE REAL NELSON MANDELA
Africa falls to communism

What's happening in the rest of Africa, country by country.

Please be sure to read about Rwanda.

-------------------------------------------------

Government by deception by Jan Lamprecht
Government by Deception by Jan Lamprecht (Book) in Reference

picture of cover of book
http://static.lulu.com/author/displa...ont&1218141211

Government by Deception - Psychopolitics in
southern Africa - Why South Africa could
become another Zimbabwe This is the book
that nobody believed could be true. It has
since had the most successful track record
of predictions of any political book ever
written in South Africa. Readers comment
that even in 2007, it is as if it were written
yesterday! The book touches on many aspects of
life in South Africa, but with a psychological
warfare emphasis. It describes guilt as a
racial weapon. It predicted many things which
have since come to pass. It was probably the
first book to discuss crime in S.Africa as a
clandestine war against Whites. Its predictions
about Zimbabwe have been borne out, including
the chapter, The Marxist Brotherhood. In that
chapter it was predicted that Mugabe's evil
would spread and that other African countries
would support him. In 2007, the world was
stunned when the 14 SADC countries supported
Mugabe in his "war against the Western world!"

Originally Posted by OrangeEmpire

Incisive book on how the ruling Marxist, racist ANC regime is engineering famine in South Africa. Dr Du Toit describes how the ANC commits systematic genocide against White farmers to steal their land. Absolute power flows not only from the barrel of a gun, but also from the hand which holds the food. Stalin starved 11 Million Ukrainians in 1933, Pol Pot 2 Million in 1975. Mugabe in 2000- is SA next? Read & decide for yourself. For a free PDF copy of the book, email boerboel@mighty.co.za

"During times of universal deceit, telling
the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
- George Orwell

"They'll forgive you for being wrong.
What they won't forgive you for is
being right." ---Robert L. Bartley

"Remember, there is such a thing as good
and evil." ---Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[OrangeEmpire]

[gsvol]

Originally Posted by VolunteerHillbilly

I met a few expatriated South Afrikaners in the 1990s. They told some of the most horrific tales I have heard in my lifetime, although I had no way to weigh the veracity of their stories. If what I heard was true, I'd have to opine that those who only lose land are fairly lucky.

Some pertinent correspondences.
Savage murder campaign against white South African farmers

"Americans do not understand how hard it is to
immigrate. I find most Americans think that if
you apply to enter, well then, the U.S., Canada,
or Australia will let you in. NOT SO. It is
virtually impossible to immigrate legally to the
U.S., Canada, and Australia if you do not have
the right qualifications or huge sums of money.
This of course should make for commentary about
our immigration system, which selects for law-
breaking, venality, and risk taking, etc. I’ve
dealt with that somewhat here. Our refugee policies
should favor the Boer, but we favor the likes of
the “Lost Boys of Sudan”—more photogenic. Where
do you think the Zimbabwe farmers fled to? The
U.S.? No. Most left for South Africa, as far as
I know. Some might have had British passports.
The Boers don’t have that."

Originally Posted by orangeblooded2

I wonder what the estimated oil reserves are in south Africa.Their have been published reports of huge oil fields in other locations in Africa.

The height of irony is that the author of the
Church Street bomb, Aboobaker Ismail, has been
rewarded by his appointment as head of security
at the Reserve Bank in Pretoria, the same bank
where a British subject, Ian Plenderleith, holds
the position of Deputy Governor in an unprecedented
move in modern history where one country’s central
bank is partially controlled by a non-national.


(Comment by gs; not really true, our central bank, the federal reserve is and has been since 1913, owned by 60% foreign interests.)

On the East Rand, the notorious terrorist Robert
McBride, who murdered three innocent women and
injured another 73 civilians during the Magoo’s
Bar bombing in Durban on 14 June 1986, has been
appointed as head of the metropolitan police force.
The ANC is synonymous with outrage, either through
its many half—truths and lies about South African
history, or in its appointments of former terror
operatives to high government posts.

Above in this post is excerpted from;

Dan Roodt holds a Ph.D. from the University of the
Witwatersrand and a D.E.A. from the Université de
Paris VIII (Vincennes/St. Denis). He is a well-known
novelist and Afrikaner commentator who has played a
leading role in what has become known over the past
four years as the “Third Afrikaans Language Struggle.”

-------------------------------------------

THE REAL NELSON MANDELA
Africa falls to communism

What's happening in the rest of Africa, country by country.

Please be sure to read about Rwanda.

-------------------------------------------------

Government by deception by Jan Lamprecht
Government by Deception by Jan Lamprecht (Book) in Reference

picture of cover of book
http://static.lulu.com/author/displa...ont&1218141211

Government by Deception - Psychopolitics in
southern Africa - Why South Africa could
become another Zimbabwe This is the book
that nobody believed could be true. It has
since had the most successful track record
of predictions of any political book ever
written in South Africa. Readers comment
that even in 2007, it is as if it were written
yesterday! The book touches on many aspects of
life in South Africa, but with a psychological
warfare emphasis. It describes guilt as a
racial weapon. It predicted many things which
have since come to pass. It was probably the
first book to discuss crime in S.Africa as a
clandestine war against Whites. Its predictions
about Zimbabwe have been borne out, including
the chapter, The Marxist Brotherhood. In that
chapter it was predicted that Mugabe's evil
would spread and that other African countries
would support him. In 2007, the world was
stunned when the 14 SADC countries supported
Mugabe in his "war against the Western world!"

-----------------------------------------

list of the tyrants who now rule african nations
SudanTribune article : Europe and African Dictators

Originally Posted by OrangeEmpire

Incisive book on how the ruling Marxist, racist ANC regime is engineering famine in South Africa. Dr Du Toit describes how the ANC commits systematic genocide against White farmers to steal their land. Absolute power flows not only from the barrel of a gun, but also from the hand which holds the food. Stalin starved 11 Million Ukrainians in 1933, Pol Pot 2 Million in 1975. Mugabe in 2000- is SA next? Read & decide for yourself. For a free PDF copy of the book, email boerboel@mighty.co.za

"During times of universal deceit, telling
the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
- George Orwell

"They'll forgive you for being wrong.
What they won't forgive you for is
being right." ---Robert L. Bartley

"Remember, there is such a thing as good
and evil." ---Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"It is easier to resist at the beginning
than at the end."
Leonardo da Vinci

[OrangeEmpire]

[gsvol]

Originally Posted by OrangeEmpire

Did you know the guy who gives final training and evaluation of all those agents in a UT almnus???

Know where that takes place???

I know that and much much more, if you're skeered just jump in my pocket!!!

Did you read the recent comment by Ted Turner equating FBI and KGB agents as being about the same???