Black economic empowerment critic Moeletsi Mbeki has sparked a fresh storm over South Africa’s land question, boldly declaring that the country’s urban millions rely on the agricultural prowess of those who came by their land via conquest.
In a move that’s sure to raise eyebrows and tempers alike, Mbeki suggested there’s little justification for reversing the historical dispossession of black South Africans through land reform or expropriation.
Speaking at a seminar hosted by Durban’s Xubera Institute for Research and Development – a black-owned, non-partisan think tank founded by fellow analyst Xolani Dube – Mbeki didn’t mince his words about who really holds the keys to South Africa’s food security.
“The land was conquered from the indigenous African population by the colonists from Europe. Nobody disputes that. That is one aspect of the land. It is part of our history,” he told the audience.
“If you have the gun and the muscle, you can conquer it back if that’s what you want to do. You want to open another war to conquer that land back from the present owners? Well, that’s scenario number one.”
Mbeki dismissed calls for land expropriation and redistribution, arguing that South Africa’s urban majority needs efficient food producers more than sentimental redress.
“Sixty-eight percent of our population lives in urban areas. They need to be fed by somebody else; they cannot grow their own food. Somebody has to grow the food,” he said.
“Today, the existing farmers feed 68% of us who do not grow food… We are no longer in the old tribal societies. We are in a modern capitalist society. We live in an urban environment.”
To hammer his point home, Mbeki drew parallels with developed economies, noting that land ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few. “In America only 3% of the workers and the owners own land.
“In England it’s even less. In England, it’s more like 1% of the population owns land. If you want a modern developed economy, you have to accept that farming is a very specialised industry that requires specialised people to manage it.”
For Mbeki, raking over historical injustices is a luxury the modern economy cannot afford. “We can sit here and cry about our history for as long as we like. I can cry about my ancestral land. My ancestors used to live at a place in KZN called Bergville. That was many centuries ago… Then in came King Shaka, and he was building his empire with his army.
“The leader of my ancestral community in Bergville didn’t want to join his empire, so he put them to the spear. They ran away and ended up in the Eastern Cape. What do you want me to do? Should I come back to Bergville… and say to the people living there, ‘Oh, Moeletsi Mbeki now wants his land back from you’? Of course not.”
He was blunt about the economic risk of returning land to those dispossessed but lacking resources: “If we take the land from the present commercial farmer and give it to my brother’s family there, they can’t produce to feed the population in Durban. They haven’t got the capital. They haven’t got the skills. They haven’t got all the things that you need to run a productive commercial farm in South Africa today. That is the reality we have to live with.”
To underscore how long power can linger in the hands of the conquerors, Mbeki referenced the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the fortunes of the Duke of Westminster.
“For conquering that part, his commander, who was called William the Conqueror, gave him part of that land and said, ‘That is your family land, and all the villagers who live there are your people. This is the Duke of Westminster.’ … Today, a thousand years later, he still owns the land in London. The west of London, where Oxford Street is and so on, they are still paying rent to the Duke of Westminster… That is the reality of
our situation.”
Mbeki concluded with a pointed reminder that food security, not sentiment, is the cornerstone of South Africa’s future. “[This is] the challenge we have in South Africa. South Africa’s agriculture feeds its population. It feeds its urban population, and most importantly, it exports.”
