Do not demand your land... we will starve!

I was watching a talk-show last year. I cannot remember which one it was. The debate must have been about Land reform. In the panel were the likes of Lindiwe Mazibuko, Andile Mngxitama, Eusebius McKaiser and the Englishman whose name I cannot remember right now.

Pik Botha was also there. Remember him? He is an old man now. He seemed to have this air of self-assurance about him. Whenever it was his turn to speak, he’d eat into the whole 60 seconds, as if to say ‘these kids over here know nothing.’ I’d look at Andile, Lindiwe and Eusebius. It must have been tricky for them to sit there, poised and ready to debate, while also fighting off the desire to laugh at Oom Pik.

I was on the edge of my seat. Even blinking seemed like a costly exercise. A lot went on during the debate. At some point Andile took a swipe at Lindiwe by calling her a house-nigger. Peeved by this, Lindiwe gave Andile a dressing-down. You know that Lindiwe can blaze through with the Queen’s language without stopping to catch her breath. She is that gifted.

Eusebius, perhaps owing to his talents, his previous debating accolades and the nature of the talk-radio job that he is doing, seemed to vacillate between the opinions. He was agreeing here, casting doubt there and disagreeing over there. The other two “kids” flanking him – Lindiwe and Andile – were belligerent with their views.

That Englishman whose name I said I cannot remember, had been calmly fighting against the idea of land expropriation, and doing okay. But things came to a head when Andile argued that the man was employing the "logic of thieves" to justify the colonial injustice visited upon the Black people - the rightful owners of this land. The man seemed quite rattled after that.

I was reminded of this emotional episode when I read Kevin Mileham (DA MP)'s counter-argument over the ANC's policy proposal titled "Strengthening the Relative Rights of People Working the Land." The logic of thieves is carrying on unabated.

When you really think about the argument put forward by Kevin, you realise that in this country, it would seem, as long as the land is in the hands of the colonial system, therefore it is “constitutionally” in good hands. And nobody will starve. But once it moves into the Black hands, Lord, the constitution is under threat. And oh Lord we are certainly going to starve!

We don’t seem to think this through by saying: Well, I hear that issue about productive land and what have you but, hell, there is so much land in the White people’s hands which is not being used productively right now and, surely, once I have the land, nobody should mind me if I start to walk on the land, or to admire the land, to roll all over the land, to hug the land, to piss on the land or to simply put up the fence on the land, just like everybody else is doing!

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