- On 12th February, Dr Philip Du Toit launched his book
The Great South African Land Scandal. He pointed out that the book cried
out to be written. Co-operation in its compilation came from people on
all sides of the political spectrum, as well as White, Black Coloured and
Indian farmers, which gave the lie to the accusation that it was the work
of the "right wing". There is a systematic destruction of farmland
underway, which must be stopped. The action of the government 'has already
cost the country R3 billion and has disillusioned thousands of poor people
who were promised a farm and were left high and dry when they got one.'
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- Dr. Du Toit says, "we did not find one single instance
where a productive operation remained productive, let alone improved, in
all the farm handovers we researchedWe found throughout the country that
commercial farmers are only too willing to help neighbours, but either
help was spurned or there was very little sustained effort to make a go
of the operation.'
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- All that remains of South African farmers are 35,000,
down from 70,000; yet they produce enough food for the whole of Southern
Africa. Even so, those productive farms which remain, struggle against
formidable odds to maintain their operations. Apart from local elements
and situations, interference from overseas government and private interests,
remain a problem. Having assisted in the overthrow of the previous government
and the imposition of the unready regime they helped bring to power, they
remain motivated by malice against White South Africa, and will not rest
till the entire country perishes in turmoil, hunger and racial conflict.
Money is being poured in from Britain and America to help land-claim elements.
From Britain, Oxfam and the 'War on Want' are named by Dr. DuToit. The
'War on Want' have in fact created the 'Landless peoples' Movement in South
Africa. Their leaders have called for South African farmers to be killed.
In the USA Henry Ford would turn in his grave to know that the great company
he established 'has funded a frivolous claim in the North West Province,
which has cost farmers R800, 000 to defend.
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- Dr. Philip Du Toit ended his launch with an appeal to
the media, opposition parties and representatives of foreign governments,
to distribute his book so that South Africans and the world will understand
the parlous position and impossible odds the South African farmer contends
with in order to produce food for our nation.
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- The material we offer from the book will leave our readers
in no doubt about the seriousness of the situation.
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- The Zebediela Citrus Estate came into possession of the
South African Government in 1974. It was hugely prosperous until then.
Thereafter it grew to what was described as "the diamond of agricultural
projects". The Reader's Digest Illustrated Guide to Southern Africa
(1978) wrote "Nearly 400 million oranges are harvested each year from
the groves of Zebediela, the world's biggest citrus estateAt the height
of the season about 15,000 cases of oranges leave Zebediela every day.
The fruit comes from more than 565,000 trees irrigated by enough water
to supply a city. The whole estate is highly mechanised and many of the
most advanced handling techniques in world citrus production have originated
from Zebediela"
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- In 1994, Zebediela was placed under the control of the
Agricultural and Rural Development Corporation (ARDC). This newly-formed
ANC administration, ruined not only the R30 million per year harvest of
Zebediela, but 'scores of other agricultural projects in the area' as well.
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- Corruption, theft and maladministration ensured that
by 2001 the estate of 2260 hectares (ha) was reduced to 800 hectares. 'Hundreds
of thousands of oranges and lemons were not harvested, and workers were
not paid. R8 million worth of lemons were left to rot50 tractors fell into
disrepair. Managers with 40 years experience were replaced by people who
knew nothing of farming. The press learned that not one of the newly appointed
directors could read a financial statement.' In March 2001 ABSA bank bounced
a cheque for R56 Million.
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- Sister projects, as Lisbon Estate, which had an annual
turnover of R24 million and the Saringwa Citrus and Mango Estate, which
produced a harvest of R5 million six years ago met with a similar fate.
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- Mike Amm was one of 7 farmers in the Letsitele Valley
who sold their farms to the Department of Land Affairs, in the name of
land restitution. Now, there is a clause regarding land claims that, 'if
compensation had been paid then a claim against that same land would be
invalid.' In this case the Mamathola received 7000 hectares in exchange
for the 1500 ha which had been seriously degraded, denuded and eroded through
misuse. In 1956 they were given two farms in Trichardtsdal, but in their
claim they said it was too small, and they said it was far from their graves,
but there were no graves left behind. They said they had to build new houses
churches and schools, but these were built for them out of taxpayers money.
Yet their claim was validated.
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- 'The 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, and the thousands
of trees were nurtured to world standardsThey left a beautiful house they
had built themselves; a manager's house; a separate flat; staff quarters;
a reservoir; boreholes; irrigation systems; three packing sheds and sophisticated
farming equipment.' But devastation worse than the plagues of Egypt struck.
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- R4.5 million capital was left by the Ministry of Agriculture
and Land Affairs, in the hands of a committee appointed to run the farm
on behalf of the tribe. The committee included a panel beater (treasurer)
a teacher, a clerk, one unemployed person. The chairman worked in a bookshop,
and at present works for a publisher, and occupies the 4-bedroom farmhouse.
Each received R12, 000 per month, and soon the R4.5 million had vanished
like the morning mist.
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- When Dr Du Toit's researchers arrived they found avocado
trees 'dying of thirst' even though the farm dam was full. The pipes from
the dam were broken and there was no money to repair them. None of those
wonderful trees were watered, papayas hung from ity was cut off, the cool
rooms didn't workthousands and thousands of macadamia nuts (the most expensive
on the market) lay under the trees unharvested, 'citrus orchard's gasped
for water in the searing heat. These "ghost farms" are appearing
all over South Africa.'
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- But the hazards of modern day farming in South Africa
are many. South African farmers are the most vulnerable in the world.
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- Dirk Kotze told how for thirty years his farming operation
supported more than 1000 families with food every month and 100 families
with milk each day. But the squatters came and settled on adjoining farms.
Then, in February, 2003, after many threats, he and his wife were attacked
by five Blacks who made off with his weapons, money and vehicle. Now he
feels helpless. There is no law enforcement and he sees no future in farming.
He has asked the government to buy his farm.
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- Because there is nobody to stop him, Jabulani Mdlalose
has set himself up as a kind of warlord. He sells plots of private property
to squatters. Steve van Jaarsveld was visited by Jabulani in mid 1999.
He told Steve that he would be settling people on various commercial farms
in the district. In April, 2002 squatters began arriving and erecting shacks
on farms. Mr. Van Jaarsveld reported this to the police who said they could
do nothing because the owners of the farms, Landbou Krediet, had not lodged
a charge. As the build up of shacks grew on the farm Steve was renting,
and the police were called in, the squatters simply told the police they
had bought the land from Jabulani, that was the end of the story. The matter
was taken no further by the police, that is! Farmer van Jaarsveld was recently
attacked, beaten outside his front door and shot several times in the leg.
His boerbul dog, which he says saved his life and paid for it by being
shot in the head more than once, but, miraculously survived.
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- However, not every farmer has been as lucky as Steve
and Dirk. Since 1994 when the ANC came to power: out of more than 8,000
farm attacks 1600 farmers have been murdered, which means there has been
a farm murder on an average every second day, and more than two farm attacks
every day. A Kranskop farmer, Günther Gathnan has lost a total of
four members of his family to farm murders. In a second attempt, his brother
Walter was killed three years ago. In the earlier attempt, his mother age
88 was beaten, pistol-whipped and shot at. His aunt, cousin and uncle were
the other three victims. Many of the killings were gruesome. I have seen
pictures of some of them.
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- The murder of Farmer Friedel Redinger in 1998 in Kwazulu
Natal, where 7,000 people are murdered every year, was particularly horrible
and linked to a land dispute. It was spring when three Blacks stopped Redlinger's
bakkie on his way home. They were from the local Community Policing Forum.
When he got out of his vehicle he was ordered to kneel and shot in the
back of the neck, point blank execution style.
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- Yet, the government enquiry ordered into farm murders
by the ruling people, in response to public outcry, makes the British Hutton
Report sound like a bed-time lullaby.
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- The report said, in nearly 90% of the murders, the motives
were robbery. Which is a lie, because in many attacks nothing was stolen.
The Report went on to say: Intimidation accounted for 7.1% and only 2%
of the murders were racially motivated.
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- Dr. Du Toit's investigators however, arrived at a very
different finding: "in fact most murders are carried out by young
Blacks between the ages of 18 and 30. There is no law and order in the
country, an extremely low murder conviction rate (9% as against Japan's
99%), and no jobs for people whom the State President himself describes
as "unemployable""
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- Those farmers who survive the personal onslaught of Black
criminals are nevertheless faced with other problems. One farmer whose
name is withheld obviously for security reasons, owned three farms. Next
to the Kangwane homeland. His farms were simply invaded by people who refused
to move. The farmer was prepared to build a residential estate on his property
for the people, but they refused to move to allow the housing project to
get started. Nothing he did made any difference. Newspapers wrote about
it, police and security personnel from the local council gave up after
they were threatened. The provinth shovels, and who never returned. At
last the Housing MEC Craig Padayachee tried his luck but when things threatened
to get nasty he beat a swift retreat and never returned. That was back
in 1996. The squatters still occupy the private land, but the owner of
the land has received no compensation. The law of the squatter is clearly
above the law of the land.
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- Occupation of farmland does not stop there. A farmer
who had bought his 250ha farm back in 1976 on the open market, grew tobacco
and oranges and turned over some R2 million a year. Once the squatters
settle, the inevitable theft begins. They stole irrigation equipment. The
guns he gave his workers to defend his equipment was stolen and every night
R1000 worth of draglines disappeared. He was forced at last to give up.
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- The cost of security is enormous, still some farmers
are prepared to pay, and pay plenty, to maintain that which is theirs.
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- "In February 2003, Hohls estimated that his fellow
farmers in the Kwazulu Natal (KZN) province abandoned at least 250,000
ha of prime commercial farmland since 1995. Today, it could be more, but
nobody's calculating these daysThey put their cattle in, then cut the fences,
then they start stealing your crops, forcing you to leave your land. And
then they say: 'Oh well, there's vacant land, let's move on to it'. It's
a very subtle way of stealing land. In Kranskop alone over the past few
years, 14 commercial farms of more than 10,000 ha have been abandoned to
masses of squatters. Hohls says that in the Underberg, Swartberg and Himeville
districts, the amount of sheep being farmed has been reduced from around
200,000 to less than 5,000 today. Farmers in KZN pay security companies
R60 million a year to watch over their farms. Two years ago stock theft
amounted to R120 million a year. Millions of Rand are lost to wildlife,
crop and farming-equipment theft."
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- South Africa has maintained a Commando system for the
protection of farmers going back centuries to 1715. These commandos traditionally
were enlisted from ex-military trained persons. 'the commandos are components
of the South African National Defence Force. Their numbers vary from 50,000
to 70,000, but now, to make Land-Grab still easier the commando system
is to be 'phased out'. The Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula
says its "because of the role it played in the apartheid era'and that
it did not have the "level of acceptance" by the public that
it should have. It is to be replaced by a new unit of the SA Police Service.
Du Toit points out, that "these part time soldiers belong to more
than 180 commando units and carry out thousands of operations each year,
many in support of border control. Many of the members depend on their
part-time soldiering as their only source of income." Over 20,000
of these soldiers are not White.
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- The situation is highly explosive, Pieter Mulder, leader
of the Freedom Front Party has pointed out that the South African country
side is the most dangerous in the world. Something like 300 people of all
races out of every 100, 000 population are being murdered on South African
farms. Comparative statistics show that about 50 out of every 100,000 throughout
our country are murdered each year, whereas 6 out of 100,000 in the USA,
and 2 out of 100,000 in Europe suffer a similar fate.
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- Still, the mind of the South African leadership is paralysed
by an illogical anti-Boer prejudice, and the nation is paying the price
in human life and Billions in terms of revenue from potential agricultural
exports and income tax.
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- As for the special unit S.A. Police Division that is
to replace the commandos, this has not escaped the attention of the author.
Dr. Du Toit offers facts and figures that show up this 'Service' in a poor
light. Year after year hundreds of people die in police custody, or as
a result of police action. As for efficiency, it is simply non-existent.
'Police dockets are regularly stolen or destroyed. Police are often involved
in robberies, hi-jackings and burglariespolice run shebeens while on duty,
and use official vehicles in private adventures. Reports indicate how policemen
rape children and girls they are appointed to protect.
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- A friend of ours has a daughter in her early 20's living
in this suburb. One night she awoke to find 4 Blacks in her room and searching
her room. She faked sleep, and when they left the room, she quickly locked
the door and phoned a nearby police station. After waiting for half an
hour she phoned again and was scolded for making a nuisance of herself.
Miraculously the lady escaped being gang-raped, a common occurrence these
days. The gang made off with thousands of Rand worth of furniture and electronic
equipment.
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- Thousands of police officers cannot drive, nearly a thousand
service weapons were, wait for it, "lost" in one year. Bribery
and crimes across the board occur daily within the police force.
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- This corrupt and inefficient organization, which, in
any case is 25% understaffed, is to provide protection to our farmers and
the country folk. Heaven help them!
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- An extremely worrying factor that is easily overlooked
is the resignation of highly skilled professional people involved in Agricultural
research. The loss of such expertise is vital blow to the health of our
meat and dairy Industries. Dr. Du Toit makes the point that the South African
Agricultural Research Institute was, until the present regime came to power,
'a leading player in the worldSouth African scientists were lauded throughout
the world.' But Important scientists have since fled the famous (Onderstepoort)
institute. He reels off names of experts as, Dr. Frank Vreede, a molecular
genetics expert, Nico Gunter and Henriette Macmillan, both cellular immunologists
who worked on vaccine development. Gone, all of them, to where they and
their expertise is welcome.
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- While 'the institute has been haemorrhaging expertise,
disease among our wild life is on the increase. 'Many buffalos have TBLions
and other predators then become infected after eating the carcases.' Yet
young White students are denied bursaries because, as acting executive
officer Dr. Mishack Molope said, "there has been discrimination in
the pastbetween black and White at ARK (Agricultural Research Council),
and there were instances where parliamentary financing had been directed
at "non-profit undertakings" which provided no "returns".
The author comments, "Clearly there is no sense of long-term thinking
here, a tragedy for first-world research". No wonder over 400 agricultural
researchers recently resigned from ARK .
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- This remarkable, horrifying and frustrating work by Dr.
Philip Du Toit is a vital wake up call to right thinking people everywhere.
The idea that all peoples, so long as they have ten fingers, ten toes,
two legs, and can talk are equal, becomes a costly fiction when you hand
them the governing authority of your nation. To get that power back is
not easy, but it is vital if we are to survive.
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- Copies of this book may be obtained by communicating
directly with Legacy Publications. As the book is so new, why not apply
for distribution rights in your country outside of South Africa.
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