Scott Kraft, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2008
Like so many corporate executives, Ed Meyer dreamed of retiring to the countryside. And so, seven years ago, he and his wife, Sally, left Cape Town to settle on the 3,500-acre ranch that had been in Ed’s family since 1916.
It’s not hard to see what fueled the dream. Their Cape Dutch-style farmhouse, all curved gables and whitewashed walls, is perched on rust-colored savanna, dusted with the scent of 50 species of blooming aloe. The view from their lawn is an oil painting of gentle hills, puffy clouds and long shadows.
“This is such a beautiful, tranquil valley,” Ed says, digging into a lunch of kudu pie, hot from Sally’s oven. The kudu was a gift; the antelope “was encroaching on our neighbor’s fruit trees.”
But their peaceful retirement was interrupted a little over a year ago when Andries Mahlungu, a gardener in nearby Marble Hall, said the farm belonged to him. In a formal claim with the government, he contended that his ancestors were there first.
Now the white couple and the black man are locked in a battle over the farm—and, in a sense, over the past and future of South Africa.
{snip}
The challenge that the new black-majority government faced was how to restore land to blacks, in a legal and orderly way, without creating a panic that would drive whites off productive farms and destroy the country’s economy—a scenario that was soon to strangle neighboring Zimbabwe.
The solution the government came up with was to create a Commission on Restitution of Land Rights to adjudicate land claims and, when valid, compensate the current owners. So far, the commission has settled about 75,000 of 80,000 claims, returning hundreds of thousands of acres to blacks and paying white farmers market rates that have totaled more than $2 billion.
With the deadline for filing claims now past, the government has pledged to settle the 5,000 outstanding claims in the next two years. But the commission is running short of money, and many of the remaining claims, like Mahlungu’s against the Meyers’ property, are being hotly contested.
{snip}
The South African government vowed to carefully investigate land claims and provide fair compensation to white farmers. Many of the country’s 40,000 white farmers willingly sold their property.
Even so, the effect on the country’s agricultural economy has not been overwhelmingly positive. Whereas the global trend is toward larger, more commercially successful farms, South Africa is breaking many of its large farms into smaller, less economically efficient pieces to meet the claims of new black farmers.
Partly as a result, South Africa in the last year has gone from a net exporter of food to a net importer. And, in another worrying trend, some of the whites who sold their farms have been recruited by other African countries, where their skills are much in demand. Now once-impoverished countries such as Mozambique are becoming more self-sufficient—and taking a share of South Africa’s export market.
{snip}
In some cases, whites have sold their farms without a fight because a neighboring property was divided into small pieces for multiple black owners; Kemp says the whites felt it would be too difficult to run their farm “next to a squatter camp.” In other cases, farmers have agreed to sell but the government has been slow to finalize the purchase.
{snip}
Molefe Pulane, a spokeswoman for the national land claims office, acknowledges that the process is slow, hobbled in part by a corruption scandal at the Land Bank, which provides money for the purchases. “It’s not going well,” she says. “There are some problems, and we’re addressing them.”
But the land rights commission maintains that the country’s redistribution of land is playing an important role in alleviating poverty and allowing the black majority, who outnumber whites 8 to 1, to fully participate in the country’s economy.
{snip}
But Mahlungu says he would allow the Meyers as well as the ranch hands to remain.
“If these white farmers want to stay with us, and if they are prepared to be directed and live by the constitution of South Africa, they are free to stay,” Mahlungu says. But, he adds, “that is my family’s farm. All we’re doing now is waiting for the government to buy it back for us.”
Original article
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Scott Kraft
at scott.kraft@latimes.com .
(Posted on December 19, 2008)
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But their peaceful retirement was interrupted a little over a year ago when Andries Mahlungu, a gardener in nearby Marble Hall, said the farm belonged to him. In a formal claim with the government, he contended that his ancestors were there first.
What is now South Africa was virtually empty when the whites arrived and settled there. It was only when the word spread north that whites were creating prosperous that blacks came, with the countenance of the cheap labor loving plutocrats. It’s only now that blacks like Mahlungu think they have an ancestral claim to the land. Obviously, if he wins, then it won’t be long until this land is not valuable anymore, because its new owners will be too stupid to know how to work with it. In other words, it’s not so much the land, it’s the IQ of the people whose feet trod upon it.
Similarly, there were only some 100,000 Mexicans in the land taken by the U.S. as a spoil in the victory of the 1848 war with Mexico, 2,000 of those in California. Mexico really didn’t want it when they had it, for they gave it away relatively easily, and then sold another strip (Gadsden Purchase) a few years later. When “gringo” makes something of the land, the Mexicans all of a sudden rediscover their “ancestral claim.”
Just like anything else with the blacks, these farms will fail. Give it 10 years and SA will fail like Zimbabwe, the symbol of black progress and achievement.
The challenge that the new black-majority government faced was how to restore land to blacks, in a legal and orderly way, without creating a panic that would drive whites off productive farms and destroy the country’s economy—a scenario that was soon to strangle neighboring Zimbabwe.
I am torn on this issue. A part of me can well understand why white farmers are trying to fight for the land they have worked so hard to maintain for generations. But at the same time, I fear more violence will follow as did in Zimbabwe during the uprising. So a part of me would rather see them all leave now, while it is still safe to do so. Either way, these greedy black scavengers are destined to eventually face the same sort of dire poverty and disease that that Zimbabwe is now facing. They literally want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to over-take the land and crops white farmers have worked for, but at the same time they realize that without them there, it will eventually turn fallow. This is exactly the fate they deserve.
This man, Mahlungu is a typical black. All he’s doing “is waiting for the government to buy it back for us.” Blacks are always waiting for someone or some organization to do things for them. Never do they do things for themselves.
He even wants the Whites to stay and run the place for him once he gets title to the farm. Nothng ever changes with blacks. They’re always trying to scam something.
Tom Iron…
“This is such a beautiful, tranquil valley,” Ed says,
I may have missed it but I don’t recall Africans speaking of Africa in such terms. They don’t seem to see the beauty all around them. It only seems that the European sensibility sees not only the potential of the land but the aesthetics as well.
This interloper is likely to get the land and all that’s on it. It will be a proud day for him when he invites all his friends and extended family to see what he’s been given for nothing.
The only solace we can take is to know that within a few years of gaining possession he will have nothing of value because it was the whites who gave the property value. Without whites, nature will return. Blacks are incapable of maintaining white western civilization.
A black who acquires a white farm could make more money sitting on his behind charging rent to the white farmer than working the land himself, because the white farmer will produce more overall wealth.
The best course of action for Whites in Africa, and anywhere in the world where Blacks have reached critical mass, is to evacuate to a safe location where Blacks are not forecast to reach critical mass during their expected lifetimes.
But the land rights commission maintains that the country’s redistribution of land is playing an important role in alleviating poverty and allowing the black majority, who outnumber whites 8 to 1, to fully participate in the country’s economy.
Isn’t it funny how that works? Blacks have to “participate in the country’s economy.” After all, they are the majority. It’s only fair. Having a minority run things is like the tail wagging the dog.
Yet, in this country, it’s exactly the opposite! We have to bend over backwards to help blacks because, after all, they are the oppressed MINORITY! The minority is automatically going to be oppressed (at least, that’s the story while they are still the minority. When minorities become the MAJORITY, then they must still be helped out due to “past discrimination!” )
In other words, no matter what the situation is, it can always be twisted by the leftists to put whites at a disadvantage.
But the land rights commission maintains that the country’s redistribution of land is playing an important role in alleviating poverty
Yeah right! They kick off the white farmer, his family and all the farm labourers and replaced them with a couple of brain dead morons with no idea how to run a productive farm.
Blacks nothing but a pack of bullies.
Why buy your own home,farm or whatever, if you can just bully it from the white man.
Same bully tactics in America. There’s hardly a single home that a black man lives in that he has built. But why should he build his own home when he can just bully it from the white man?
Why create jobs in the black communities (communities which the black man has bullied whites out of) when he can just bully it from the white man?
The picture painted by this article is a media-sanitized version. For the true situation, download the book "The Great South African Land Scandal" from www.africancrisis.org
All the whites should leave, and white countries should completely wash their hands of the country. This means no more assistance for AIDS, and no economic assistance of any kind.
Over time, the spread of AIDS and the breakdown of the economy will decimate the population to the point where there is almost no one left.
Then, if any whites are interested, they can go back, buy the land for almost nothing, and start over.
While I read this, I was thinking of a previous article I had read months ago that dealt with a similar situation. The blacks got the farm, the white male farmer was forced off of it.
The farm is now barren, and produces nothing. The last remaining black “worker” spends his time chasing off other blacks scavenging for wood and complaining about how the government wont help him.
In 20 years from now (probably less) we’ll be getting the same kind of quotes from SA blacks as we are Rhodesian ones, crying about how life was better under white rule.
Don’t know why, but it seems blacks win every contest with whites. Something lacking in the white political mind that is more than compensated for in the black. The process of winning through intimidation from a passive white population seems to be winning. Anyway, I propose simply letting Africa go, to the extent we let the Chinese take over. They need the land and the process of getting rid of blackie is not that big a deal for them. The blacks are so dumb they are welcoming the Chinese. It makes me want to laugh to hear the blacks rant about white racism, but when the Darfur genocide comes up they get sort of pensive, like it is tragically hard to understand. No, it is just the Chinese killing you off so they can take your continent, dumbbell.
The solution is simple: Give the claimants the monetary value of the land as it would now be, had Whites not spent the last 100 years building it into a successful farm. By virtue of making a simple survey of Black-controlled lands in the southern portion of Africa, the government could develop a reasonable model for what the farm would likely be worth if Mahlunga’s ancestors had retained ownership and operation: little or nothing.
The Meyers could then give Mahlunga a basket full of rocks in payment and keep their land with a clear conscience.
Unfortunately, Mahlunga and the other claimants feel entitled to everything that the Meyers family produced in 100 years of careful stewardship of the land, wealth that would NOT have existed if the Afrikaaners had not come. And they will get it., because Whites will find no justice in Black-ruled South Africa.
The Meyers should pull up stakes and move to a more hospitable White majority land, taking great care to destroy or burn every Meyer-created item of value on the entire ranch. The Mahlungas could then do as they wished, and return the land to the natural state of Black-governed Africa: abject, crushing failure.
If I were this couple I would need to think logically about this situation. The country is in a permanent decline and thousands of Whites are leaving every year. There a power outages, rampant crime and an ever declining standard of living. The government will likely become more and more aggressive over the years in its demands until they simply seize the land without any compensation.
I have news for the LA Times: the ‘future’ of South Africa is a thing of the past.
AnalogMan is right: this article is a very sanitized version of the situation. In reality, many farmers are being tortured and murdered. Their land is ending up in the hands of Middle Eastern drug producers.
I agree that since South Africa does not value whites, they shouldn’t expect white largesse. White nations should not give that country any aid at all. Let ‘em starve. This, of course, is just silly fantasy on my part, because except for Iceland, THERE ARE NO WHITE COUNTRIES LEFT.
China, on the other hand, is licking its chops in anticipation of devouring South Africa. Decades from now (assuming blacks are capable of realizing anything, or remembering anything) South African blacks will realize how good they had it (relative to slavery under the Chinese), wishing for the return of their old white masters, and the departure of their new Chinese masters. But, like I said, blacks aren’t the best at remembering or realizing; so mostly, I guess, they’ll just suffer.
because except for Iceland, THERE ARE NO WHITE COUNTRIES LEFT.
So true. I grew up in a predominantly white region, not 100% white, but very close. The non-whites did their best to adapt and conform to our European/North American ways. Now this area is populated by Chinese and East Indians. These newcomers are given every break by the government. They do not care for our ways, and are systematically destroying our neighbourhoods. The face of the future in Vancouver, BC Canada is not a fresh-faced white youth with all the hope of a good life written in his expression, but an expressionless Chinese kid.
If farmer Meyer is forced to turn over his farm to this black opportunist, he should first destroy every square inch of infrastructure that was the product of Western Civilization. He should dig up his plumbing, fill in his wells, burn his barn and house, tear up his roads. All cultivated fruit trees should be bulldozed. All animals should be given to other white farmers. Leave no trace of White civilization behind. Let this African whose “ancestors were on this land first” inherit a bare wasteland, in the exact same condition that existed at the time of his glorious predecessors.
It’s too long to write here but see what I have to say here http://iamwatchingfromafar.blogspot.com/2008/08/wither-south-africa.html
Similarly, there were only some 100,000 Mexicans in the land taken by the U.S. as a spoil in the victory of the 1848 war with Mexico, 2,000 of those in California…
Before the white man arrived 500 yrs ago from Spain or Italy There were less than 40,000 Asian red mongoloid migrants known as Aztecs or indians in the northern land as it was called. Actually there is no distinction between all the indigenous reds who were here before the European whites arrived.
It has only been called Mexico since 1821 from the vally of mexica name and were formerly the Aztec indians and officially known as New Spain for 350 yrs under colonial rule by whites who taught the natives Spanish and white man culture and religion.
What most people dont realize is the white elite originally from Spain still controlls Mexico and own most of its assets while the reds aka former Aztec indians are the peasants. This is the same all over including Cuba where Batiste was of Spanish descent as is Castro and the ruling class.
Most Spanish speaking nations are descended from European white elite and been in the family for many hundreds of years. Mexico is a mixture of the peasant working class reds and ruling class whites.
An Absurd claim. Before the Europeans came and made farmlands & civilization in South Africa there were only some stone age Hottentots & Bushmen running around and they where often hunted for sport by the primitive blacks coming down from the north.
But I would blame, most of all, all those dreamy headed white liberals there and in the West who demanded and work for black majority rule in SA. White skin to the rest of the world represents sappy liberal naivete to be taken advantage of - and history has so far shown them right.
Africans are locusts. They will devour the productive (white) farms of South Africa and then move on, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.
Black African history, in whichever continent or country they’ve inhabited, is an unbroken tale of destruction, criminality, incapacity, non-achievement, and tribal savagery.
These people simply have no place in the modern world, a fact known to all other races on the planet but shrilly denied by the white European races. Other races seem willing to acknowledge the hopelessness of black Africans, but we seem to cling to the silly, irrational and sentimental notion that somehow we can turn blacks into productive contributing members of society. How long can this go on before we can publicly acknowledge that blacks are not like us and can never be like us? It’s an immutable law of genetics we’re trying to deny. If we can’t or won’t separate outselves from them they’ll destroy us.
“What is now South Africa was virtually empty when the whites arrived and settled there. It was only when the word spread north that whites were creating prosperous that blacks came, with the countenance of the cheap labor loving plutocrats.”
Absolutely true. But there were many indigenous people living in the area. What happened to them? They were killed off by the blacks who moved in and saw them as competition.
Sometime I think White people’s best revenge would be to die out and leave the “other peoples” to live amongst themselves.
“he should first destroy every square inch of infrastructure that was the product of Western Civilization.”
Ha Ha. Time is the great equalizer of the carnard of “economic equality.” Time will take care of the Black African’s arrogance of believing their pariety will come naturally. Letting Blacks run their own farms will be it’s own retaliation.
Very good book, this ‘South African Land scandal’, by Dr, Phillip du Toit (law doctorate).
“My prescription for South Africa: All the whites should leave”.
If it was so easy … today I heard from a friend his friends emigration visa to Australia was canceled - due to the global meltdown Australians are loosing their jobs and now they understandably complain about foreigners taking their jobs.
I just hope the international finance situation will relax in a year or so. I just fear if these U.S. (and other countries) aid packages do not do their jobs, we are in for a difficult time, for then the big one is still waiting for us.
International borders might then start closing very tightly for white emigrants and I bet you not for the multicultis.
What should we do then?
If farmer Meyer is forced to turn over his farm to this black opportunist, he should first destroy every square inch of infrastructure that was the product of Western Civilization. He should dig up his plumbing, fill in his wells, burn his barn and house, tear up his roads. All cultivated fruit trees should be bulldozed. All animals should be given to other white farmers. Leave no trace of White civilization behind. Let this African whose “ancestors were on this land first” inherit a bare wasteland, in the exact same condition that existed at the time of his glorious predecessors.
Why do all that when he can wait a year and the black will have done it himself.
“Many of the country’s 40,000 white farmers willingly sold their property […] In some cases, whites have sold their farms without a fight because a neighboring property was divided into small pieces for multiple black owners; Kemp says the whites felt it would be too difficult to run their farm “next to a squatter camp.””
For a white family, living next door to a squatters’ camp in SA would be more dangerous than living next door to a crack house in Detroit. Of course the whites want to sell and get out.
Iceland’s population is so tiny, it could be overrun in an afternoon. Same with Vermont and New Hampshire. Switzerland has just officially committed suicide, so that is no longer a viable option.
Already, Iceland is being polluted with mail-order brides for lonely race-traitor bachelors. So, marriage is one way to get in.
I’m hearing people talking about west coast countries in South America. Sounds iffy to me. I love Poles, and if I were not extremely Protestant, with very obvious Jewish ancestry, I’d look into Poland. Poles have an excellent recent history of defending their country. Too, they are the largest and purest pool of pre-celtic Europeans extant. Nice genome, if you belong in it!
I second the remarks of 8.11 about the white latinos owning everything. I am a gringo but speak spanish and spend part of the year in central and south america. What most people do not know is that about 10% of the latinos are white and another 10ish percent are mostly white. Descendents of the original spanish. These are not the mexicans we see in the Wal Mart on saturday afternoon. The white ones dont come here, at least not illegally. The latinos we see hear ar the indians who are the bottom of the barrel. The spanish white latinos are really much like are we, productive business leaders ect. A perfect example was ex president Fox of Mexico. He was as white as any american president ever has been. The new pres Calderon is only slightly darker. Another example is Daisy Fuentes, the model/actress, cuban and white. For more examples turn on any latin tv station and look at the actors or newscasters. These are not the latinos we see here, in fact the females on these shows are about the prettiest women you will ever see. Think Julie Bandaras on Fox News. Nobody seems to remember that 5-600 years ago Spain was the worlds superpower long before the british overpowered them. Although Chris Colombus was Italian, he was sailing for the spanish empire. Its almost a wonder that the USA is not now a once colony of spain, florida, cal, texas, and a large part of the southwest once were. The spanish were smart, along with being not very worried about indiginous peoples rights. They set up colonies with the whites in control and plundered the gold/minerals ect, making Spain the richest country on earth until it got used up in wars with other european countries. But for about 500 years many of the best and brightest of spain along with a lot of 2nd, 3rd, ect sons of the aristocracy went to live in latin america, and also a lot of the poorer spaniards who went for opportunity not available in spain to them. Today their prodogy basically runs the government and business, at least in the top spots. And that is where the problem lies with the changes such as the indians Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales who want to take it away from the whites and redistribute to the natives. And now I am hearing that like S A the lights go out sporadically in Caracas and the murder rate is among the highest in the world. Its universal, wherever the whites are put out of power everything goes downhill after a few years of initial jubilation. I would not invest in S A or any of the latin countries with an indian in charge. KF
Posted by Skip at 4:19 PM on December 21:
I was watching a BBC report about blacks who drove white farmers off their land. AFTER they had the farm in their possession, the blacks proceeded to burn down the builds and destroy the farm equipment.
I agree, the white farmers should return the land to it’s pre-European state. Even if they don’t and leave it in pristine condition, within 10 years, the new black owners will have the land back to pre-European standards. Then you’ll see a documentary about how whites have abandoned blacks.
Does it not seem that blacks, in general, think in terms of magic? They often believe in witchcraft. The “cargo cults” in WWII thought if they build wooden runways, the “birds from the gods” (cargo planes supplying troops) would come back, bringing the goodies. It seems that low IQ blacks must think whites are in possession of some kind of “magic fairy dust” that we sprinkle, and beautiful buildings, productive farms, electricity, etc., just spring up from the ground.
So it seems to me, in their mind, they think it’s only fair we should share “the magic fairy dust” or whatever, and then the buildings, farms, etc., will magically spring up for them, too. How evil we must be, they must think, to not share the “magic fairy dust.”
How low their IQ is to not understand, what whites have, we built with our muscles, directed by our wits. And they cannot have it, unless they steal it, as they cannot do it, they cannot produce for themselves. They haven’t the wits.
“Partly as a result, South Africa in the last year has gone from a net exporter of food to a net importer.”
Interesting how this line is tossed off so casually. So now that we have had a decade and a half of black majority rule, SA’s agricultural sector is already in decline? I do not suppose anyone in the West has bothered to look at the relationship between black majority rule and this sort of thing in Africa.
How do we relocate to Iceland?
Posted by Richard at 8:21 PM on December 20
Iceland is bankrupt you fool. But then I dont expect anything else from a dumb white ‘American’ who knows nothing about the outside world.
Expressionless Chinese kid? Chinese and Indians destroying ‘white’ neighbourhoods? Give me a break.
What is this “restore” land to Blacks? I am under the impression that at one time there were almost no Blacks in S.A. Whites, due to stupidty, imported them to work. So how can the govt. “restore” anything to Blacks? Perhaps a few, but not 75,000 claims. $2 Billlion does not sound like much for 75,000 farms. I wonder who evaluates the claims?
“How do we relocate to Iceland?
Posted by Richard at 8:21 PM on December 20
Iceland is bankrupt you fool. But then I dont expect anything else from a dumb white ‘American’ who knows nothing about the outside world.”
To: The Poster at 5:23 PM on December 22
The New World was, essentially, bankrupt, too, until white settlers from Europe came. Perhaps Iceland would welcome those of us with gold and skills to come and bring the prosperity with us, YOU fool.
Oh, btw, You Fool Poster at 5:23 PM on December 22, because you are obviously NOT what you deride as “a Dumb White American,” I am not surprised you would expect that anyone who would move to Iceland would only go if Iceland was rich so their prosperity could be parasitized off of.
Let’s ask Iceland how she’d feel about us bringing her prosperity in return for citizenship. If she says yes, I’ll go in a heartbeat.
