South Africa’s land reform rises from ‘the ashes of dispossession’

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MALILIN (South Africa): Hectares on luxury gardens covers the land from which the ancestors of Bernard Shabango were once brutally expelled by the South African government.

Thousands of families lived on these green hills, 400 km east of Johannesburg, east of Johannesburg, until the early 1900s, when the colonial and the resulting colorful governments eliminated the rights of black South Africa.

“Our ancestors faced brutal treatment at the hands of those who were taking land,” said Shabango. He said some were tortured and killed by the police, others were thrown into the crocodile affected river.

He pointed to the length of papaya, bananas, litchi and cites trees in a joint venture between black and white farmers, saying, “But with these ashes of indecency and destruction, something must be positive.

The 48 -year -old lawyer is one of the 1,850 black families of the Matsamo community, who claimed the land in 1998, four years after the end of color.

When the government recovered the first plots in 2010, the community decided to consult former owners.

Shabango explained, “We felt the pursuit of whites that used to run this form would be contradictory because we would not have access to skills … and the capital we needed.”

The Mermo Sectarian Property Association (CPA) now owns more than 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres), which they manage to cooperate with white farmers in a rare model of successful land reform.

In a new, sophisticated warehouse, dozens of workers in green uniforms packed the fruits through trailing machines for shipment in supermarkets around the world. South Africa’s largest lati producer, 5,000 locals work in the form and has sent several community children to the university.

In 2023, Deputy President Paul Mashal described it as “an example of what should be done”.

One of the CPA joint ventures, who is now the Managing Director of Tamak, said, “A party has gained the skills that they are transferring, and the other parties have found land.”

“Keep these hands together and suddenly the earth comes back to life, the job comes out and everyone’s winner.”

In February, when US President Donald Trump accused Pretoria of seizing white -owned fields and offered to take the farmers as refugees, the thorny problem of land reform was laid in light.

But after the elimination of color in 1994, the restoration of the earth did not move forward. According to recent government figures, white people in 2017 – only 7.3 % of the population – still have 72 % of the commercial fields.

Last year, President Serial Ramphosa had said that 25 % of the land owned by white farmers had been returned to black South Africans.

Agricultural economist Wandile Seyloobo says it was “based on an active buyer, a seller” in which the state buys land and gives it to black farmers or lease, and not through forced conflict.

“All the land here has been paid here – but when it was taken from us, it was taken for free,” said Mudodozi Shabango, acting chairperson of the Mermo CPA.

Pointing to the opportunity, he jokingly said: “They are saying that Mr. Chance should go here and become a migrant. Look at him, he is happy here!”

Chance acknowledged that when the colorful ended and considered leaving forms in Uganda. But when the claim of the earth came, “we went with him,” he said.

The government purchased its form for about 150 150 million rand ($ 8.3 million today). “Fortunately, the future was kind to us,” said Seylobo.

According to the historic opposition Democratic Alliance Party, 75 % of the ground reforms have failed.

“It is not that the black farmers cannot field, but they are not helped in the fields that they do not back down,” said Seylobu.

The land is leased only to avoid sale of fields. This means that new farmers cannot borrow from banks like white farmers, because they do not have a title “.

In an example of complications, a form owned by Matsamo CPA was given in 1996 to 600 workers who worked during color. It failed in 2008 amid allegations of corruption, and was included in the Matsamo restoration agreement.

“We have no hope that we will one day own land,” said one of the former workers, who would name himself only in the name of Vosu. “Donald Trump may give us something,” he added with bitter laughter.