This is the type of play book we see with all political parties in power trying to remain the leading voted party when it comes to the elections. In the UK there was always some type of tax relief or things like free heating for the pensioners during winter months.
South Africa has the ANC party who have been in charge since 1994 when Nelson Mandela was their leader. The masses saw them as the political party that fought apartheid and were the ones who helped them gain their freedom. This was 32 years ago and the country has not been far from a bed of roses with racial laws similar to apartheid in reverse.
The local elections are on the 4th November so this is not a National election but more for the local municipalities but is a good gauge of where each party stands. The tide has been turning over the last 12 years with the ANC last time out having to form a unified shared government cabinet as they did not win a majority forcing them to seek other political parties to garner more than a 50% support.
The weekly flare ups with the March March protests highlighting the high unemployment in South Africa whilst allowing open borders is a major concern for voters. The rioting two weeks ago in Durban represents exactly how the country feels with regard to refugees and asylum seekers with the government having nowhere to hide. The popularity of the ANC is worse than it was at the last election and they know it is not looking very good.
The solution is to offer people free land by giving away 2.5 million hectares of farming land. This sounds great to the uneducated which is one reason the government prefers uneducated voters as they can fool them over and over again.
2.5 million hectares is 25000 km x 25000 km so this is the equivalent of the size of a country like Belgium (90%) or 10% of the UK or the entire country of Rwanda. This is a large chunk of arable farming land that the state owns and you wonder how much more they have tucked away. This is land they have acquired over the years since 2005
The free far land with title deeds sounds like those who are selected will own their own land but that is not exactly true. A title deed with your name on the land with certain conditions is not your land and will never be your land.
The last time black farmers were "given" land they were also land deed titles with restrictions like no selling or leasing. The 20 year lease imposed meant farmers struggled to negotiate bank loans as they never owned the land freehold and could not maximize the potential of the land. These black farmers are nothing more than lease holders owned by the state.
One black farmer took the government to court after farming on his lease from 1991 to 2003 and offered to purchase the land. Officials agreed to sell the land for R620K and then reversed that decision. In 2011 he was offered a 5 year lease and then eviction which he fought and won with the courts ordering the minister of agriculture to sell him the farm for R5.5 million. The land is not yours and there will never be any intention to give people the land and they will always be government tenants.
Another good question is who is entitled to these title deeds and how are the candidates selected and are the ANC officials cherry picking who gets which farm? Do the farmers have the expertise to farm the land and what are the exact terms of these title deeds. Will banks lend and assist with financing or will these so called productive farms become barren land? I think we all know these answers already without even having to ask as this is all smoke and mirrors. The same story with mining in South Africa as all the mineral rights were nationalized in 2002 making every mining company a tenant to the state and why mining in SA has crashed from what it used to be prior to this.