(Budget debate in Parliament: Agriculture and Land Reform)
The political and technical aspects of agriculture are two sides of the same coin, so, subordinating one to the other creates a significant risk.
Landownership has always been linked to the distribution of political power, whether present or historical. When a political shift takes place, as it did in South Africa thirty years ago, there is mounting pressure to bring landownership in line with it.
Ignoring or frustrating this pressure merely makes matters worse. The longer the pressure keeps mounting, the greater its explosive force becomes.
On the other hand, the rash redistribution of land which fails to take into account the new owners’ skills and ability to maintain continued food production is not much better.
Food shortages spark revolution, even against authorities which would label themselves as revolutionary.
With Afrikaners’ loss of political power, the collective bond between Afrikaners and land was privatised. Put differently, aside from Orania, there exists no Afrikaner land. There is, of course, land belonging to individual Afrikaners, but it could be transferred to others overnight.
In contrast, black communities have retained their ties to specific land throughout history, even though these fell short economically and politically. Afrikaners have tried to uphold this bond through the market mechanism, which is not a suitably strong instrument.
Keeping within that line of reasoning, land is reduced to a mere commodity; an economic resource to be approached without any emotion.
Parties advocating for land reform, even through expropriation without compensation, regard this approach with distrust. They see it as a way to entrench historical privilege.
If a settlement regarding landownership is needed, it is also necessary to recognise the political significance of land for Afrikaners, as for other communities. There should be land set aside to serve as a cultural reference point for Afrikaners.
This is the kind of mutual recognition that South Africa needs to break the deadlock over the land issue. Afrikaners should be enabled to help South Africa transform through recognising and protecting their collective interest.
So, this is the twofold task of these departments that are busy separating: Make it agriculturally possible to feed the country; and make it politically possible for everyone to put their shoulder to the wheel.
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