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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Govt ‘obsessed’ by land-redistribution goal
15:33 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
New Land Expropriation Bill on the books to force whites into selling private land parcels
Cape Town - The government will not abandon its land-redistribution goal of transferring 30% of land to black owners. Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti told Business Day that they feared that ‘failure to redistribute (land) posed the risk of Zimbabwe-style polarisation.”
"We remain obsessed with 30%. The issue has a great potential for polarisation," Nkwinti told a media briefing by Cabinet's economic and employment cluster.
He confirmed a statement by the director general of the department, Thozi Gwanya, last week that the government realised it would not be able to achieve its target of transferring 30% of land to black owners by 2014.
Deadline
Gwanya told Business Day that the government was thinking of extending its deadline to 2025 due to a lack of funding made worse by the recession. He said R71bn would have been needed to buy outstanding land by 2014, but Treasury had asked the department to revise its request of an additional R18bn over three years to a more realistic sum.
Nkwinti said his ministry had not yet made it formal policy to shift the deadline to 2025 but was looking into the matter. He said the government was aware that it could never move swiftly enough to address expectations on land reform but believed that people wanted to know that the state was aware of their problems.
The minister reiterated that the state's "willing buyer, willing seller" model of land reform did not work.
New Land Expropriation Bill planned
Officials are working on a new draft of an expropriation bill that would have facilitated the seizure of land from white farmers (and owners of private land) who are unwilling to sell, after withdrawing it because of constitutional concerns.
Communal Land Rights Act declared ‘unconstitutional”
The department ran into another legal hurdle last week when the North Gauteng High Court struck down large portions of the Communal Land Rights Act, that would have been a pillar of the Zuma administration's rural development programme. The law, which was declared unconstitutional, was challenged because of the powers it gave the state to privatise communal land.
- Nkwinti said the state would not challenge the court ruling.
He claimed that critics of SA land reform were ‘wrong to blame failing farming operations on redistributed land for the drop in agricultural production’ in South Africa, which was ‘partly the result of vast areas of arable land being turned into game farms. They are no longer producing maize, potatoes..." he said.
However, his assesment is not backed up by the proof provided by the events which occurr after viable agricultural land is handed over to tribal communities.
South Africa only ever had no more than six percent of its ENTIRE land surface suitable for cropping – now the total surface a available to commercial farmers to produce food-crops has been reduced to less than ONE PERCENT of the entire land surface according to the CIA surveys of land-use.
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Pilot ‘s uniform, passport, visas looted at SA Open Golf
Unnamed pilot was attending the prestigious SA Open Golf tournament…
December 22 2009 -- A pilot can’t fly after his uniform, cap, passports and visas were stolen at the prestigious South African Open golf tournament at the weekend, which featured five of the world's top players, writes Lavern de Vries in the Daily News.
The pilot, who declined to be named, says he works for ‘a major South African airline,’ and attended the tournament when his car was broken into.
"We paid a R10 parking fee and expected the security guards to have heard the alarm going off," he said.
Eyethu Events, the security provider for the event, disagreed, alleging that the theft was ‘the work of a syndicate’: its operations director Charl Barnard, said 47 security guards had been deployed on Saturday, in line with the tournament organiser's budget. On Sunday 900 cars had entered the area, he added.
"We realised something was amiss when two cars of the same make were broken into on Saturday and Sunday," he said. They boosted security staff to 51 and allowed all cars of that make to park in a designated area.Barnard said his company had been in contact with the SAPS , who were investigating.
The pilot, meanwhile, would have to claim from his insurance “as signs placed at the tournament warned motorists that parking was done at their own risk”, Barnard said. This article was originally published on page 5 of Daily News on December 22, 2009
- contact for Eyethu Events: Phil Prinsloo, Managing Director, 083 667 7377
Afrikaans rapper rises to fame on internet
Afrikaans rapper Jack Parow’s single, “Jy dink jy’s cooler as ekke”, has over 20 000 hits on Youtube thus far. It’s hip-hop at its best – sharp, raw, and side-splitting – and with a video to match.
Touted as the Bob Dylan of Cape Town’s northern suburbs, Jack Parow is a resident of Bellville, a traditionally Afrikaner working class-suburb where the headquarters of life-insurance giant SANLAM is located. Parow is spearheading a hip hop movement characterised by the use of his regional Afrikaans patois.“We avoid the word pidgin,” he explains, “owing to its unfortunate association with rats of the sky.” Watch Parow's single, "Jy dink jy's cooler as ekke":
News updates Dec 22 2009
20091220 Gert Viljoen, 47, shot dead while dumping garden refuse, Vanderbijlpark
Dec 22 2009 – VANDERBIJLPARK. Gert Viljoen, 47, left, of Vanderbijlpark, told his fiancee Rita Jacobs just before he was shot dead near his house: “If it’s time for seventh-heaven, I can’t get you away from here’.
He was referring to the popular Afrikaans TV show Sewende Laan (Seventh Avenue) – his fiancee didn’t want to miss her favourite soapie so Gert left her behind to watch it while he took his bakkie to dump some freshly-cut grass from his lawn on a nearby waste-site before it got too dark. Beeld journalist Sonja van Buul, who interviewed the grief-stricken fiancee, wrote that a while after he’d left, Ms Jacobs had heard a ‘hoarse voice’ calling her name from outside, and when she looked out, she saw his bakkie parked in front of the gate. When she heard him call to her a second time, she ran out and found her fiancee, bleeding, seated on the ground with his back against a wall. She screamed loudly for anyone to come and help – and as it happened her call was heard by an ER24 paramedic, Ms Celeste Harmse who was driving past with a girl-friend. Ms Harmse applied first-aid until an ER24 ambulance showed up. “Gert turned his head and looked at me for a last time. They tried hard to save his life, but he died next to our garden tap,’ she said. Police inspector Kinnie Steyn, said they were investigating the murder and suspect that it was a botched ‘hijacking’ and nobody was arrested. Police inspector Jakes Jacobs is the investigating officer. He can be reached at telephone y 0082 3199653 http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/14b7d717ab1b42698dfd3d0efeb26e24/22-12-2009-11-56/n_Hees_roep_en_sy_kry_geliefde_sterwend_in_tuin
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Farm murder, Kameeldrif/Pumulani Pretoria region:
Dec 22 2009 - Riana Van Staden writes on Facebook: “Adriana, there were another two farm attacks in our region (Pretoria North East). In one attack, the man was shot dead. He apparently surprised the robbers when he walked into the living room, there was a shooting towards him, he ran to his room and closed the door. They shot him through the door. He was dead on the scene. This was in the Pumulani/Kameeldrif region of Pretoria North East. I will provide the information as soon as I have the name. In the second attack, there was a back-and-forth gunfight between the robbers and the smallholding owner, also in Pretoria North-East. http://www.facebook.com//profile.php?v=feed&story_fbid=1268442384297&id=1026941238 For another source list on murders and attacks against Afrikaner families: http://www.projek2010.co.za/Projek2010/aanvallys.aspx
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20091222 SAPS captain Michele Pitout passed away – shot in gun-battle in Margate, KZN
On Dec 18 2009, Ian, the husband of SAPS captain Michele Pitout, shot in the head during a gun-battle with a criminal gang in Margate Wednesday, still told the news media she was still in a coma – but that he was confident that her ‘tough nature will help her recover”. However, Captain Michele Pitout reportedly died from her injuries on December 22 2009. Ian and Michele have two children, Madison, 4, and Robin, 9. Gamalakhe SAPS station commissioner Captain Michele Pitout, Detective Constable Grant Phelukhwayo and Inspector Trevor Moodley were shot while following a lead on a housebreaking case in Tin Town on the South Coast. A robber was killed and two others wounded in the confrontation. Phelukhwayo was in a stable condition and is recovering in hospital from wounds to his chest and face after he was operated on, said police spokesperson Superintendent Zandra Wiid. Moodley was treated and discharged from hospital on Wednesday, but returned for further tests on Thursday. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20091222124150670C431503
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20091123 Electrician Danie Labuschagne, 37, shot dead in Brakpan – ‘took the bullet for his family’
From left to right, son Danie, widow Madeleine and daughter Moniquen after their father’s murder at the hands of three house-attackers on November 23 2009.
This Christmas day will be a very bitter event for the working-class Labuschagne family of Brakpan. 37-year-old Danie Labuschagne, the breadwinner and father of 12-year-old Monique and 14-year-old Danie, would have turned 38 years old. Widow Madeleine told Beeld journalist Susanne Cilliers that the two children had hid beneath a blanket after three house-attackers had shot their father in the stomach right in front of their eyes for no reason at all: the unarmed electrician had given them his full cooperation, even helped them find their laptop computer.
Mr Labuschagne died several hours later of internal bleeding. Daughter Monique said that after he was shot, her dad “looked at me as if asking, ‘help me’. Widow Madelein said Danie was her ‘high-school sweetheart who meant everything to me.My husband took the bullet for his family,’ she said. “he didn’t put up any defence and even explained to these thugs were the laptap computer was, and we all called them ‘sir’ “ she said.
The electrician also was a keen marathon-athlete who had even run in the Comrades, and took Danie junior jogging with him on a 5km jaunt each morning. Danie junior said he’d already promised his dad to keep up the jogging routine every day. ‘He always wanted to participate in the Ironman-competition and I have decided that I will do that once I turn 18,’ said the youth. Police captain Mack Mngomezulu said a ‘case of murder and house-robbery is being investigated, but nobody has been arrested.’ Mr Labuschagne was buried from the Christian Family Church International in Boksburg . http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/fbccf84495dc42c4ab1b7440630d0bb2/23-11-2009-12-46/%E2%80%98My_man_het_die_koe%C3%ABl_vir_ons_gevat%E2%80%99
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Zulu artist Kwakhe “Mgqumeni” Mseleku Khumalo dies mysteriously – recently offended Zulu King
- Dies while being rushed to traditional healer
Dec 22 2009 – Received from the Inkatha Freedom Party. Its MP Pat Lebenya-Ntanzi has expressed sadness and shock at the sudden death of the well-known Maskandi artist, Kwakhe "Mgqumeni" Mseleku (Khumalo) who died last Saturday when he was being rushed to a traditional healer. IFP Youth Brigade National Chairman, the parliamentarian Pat Lebenya-Ntanzi said:"It was with shock and sadness that we received the news of the passing away of our Comrade, Kwakhe "Mgqumeni Mseleku (Khumalo). South Africa has been left poorer by the departure of Mgqumeni who -- like many other artists involved in the promotion of traditional music and arts -- was at the forefront of a struggle for the revival of our languages, history and values which unfortunately are under attack in this democratic South Africa where foreign forms of art seem to get more attention and time.
"In particular, Mgqumeni's departure has robbed the IFP of one of our heroes who never allowed any pressures to lead him away from the values of our party. Until his death, Mgqumeni remained a loyal and dedicated soldier who was committed to the IFP's on-going struggle for the consummation of the post-1994 chapter of the liberation struggle. We will dearly miss his contributions to the development of the youth of our country. As the Executive of the IFP Youth Brigade, we wish to call on all members of the IFP Youth Brigade to leave everything else and gather at the funeral service of Comrade Mgqumeni to pay our last respects to this hero of the IFP."Ms Pat Lebenya-Ntanzi MP (Acting) National Chair: telephone 078 186 3619.
The artist recently got into big trouble with the Zulu royal family after he used the name ‘Ngingangezwe Lethu” (I Am As Big As The World) – a name that belongs exclusively to Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini.
He used the label on the track Dlala Khumalo of his new album Wathula Nje. In the song Khumalo also refers to himself as izinyane lembube, meaning he’s untouchable, a phrase also used to address only the Zulu king. The royal family was reportedly furious. Speaking on behalf of the royal family, royal inyosi (praise singer) Buzetsheni Mdletshe said the singer was ‘ being disrespectful because he is equating himself to the king.” Mdletshe says the musician has invited bad luck and problems for himself. It’s not acceptable for a common man in our culture to use these words. Even children know they are not allowed to use these phrases,” says Mdletshe.
Khumalo, who is the producer and singer of the duo Amagcokama, said it had never been his intention to disrespect the king. “I was only responding to a rival group, Amageza Amahle, that we had a fight with on stage last month,” he said. Khumalo said the words they used on track six of his album, Dlala Khumalo, refer to Amageza Amahle. He says: “We were only implying that we are bigger than them and they can do nothing to stop us because we’re untouchable.” Khumalo says the group did not know they’d offend anyone other than Amageza Amahle. http://www.sundayworld.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1036223
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Invaders order black Limpopo mango-farmer to leave
2009-12-22 Johannesburg - Farm invaders are preventing Limpopo farmer Whiskey Kgabo, left, from harvesting the mangoes on his farm. The mangoes brought in R480 000 for Kgabo last year, reports Sarel van der Walt in Beeld newspaper. His 65ha farm Balloon is near Trichardtsdal, between Tzaneen and Lydenburg.
Kgabo has been a successful commercial farmer since 1992, and in 2005 he sold his three farms to the government as part of the government's land claims programme.
(*This ‘land-claims programme’ removes all privately-owned commercial farmland ownership and transfers it into State-property. The SA regime then is supposed to ‘transfer’ this land to ‘previously disadvantaged communities’).
However, because of an administrative error on the part of the land claims commission, only two of the three farms owned by this black South African farmer were transferred to the government. Thus far the government has only paid Mr Kgabo R2m ($200,000) - about half the selling price they'd agreed on.
- When he sold his farms, the government had agreed that he could farm on Balloon until the amount had been paid in full. Kgabo could also stay on in a house on one of the adjacent farms.
A few months ago Kgabo's farm was invaded by about 100 people. The invaders, calling themselves the Banareng-ba-Mantjana community, are claiming the land and say that they're the legal owners. Kgabo's farm labourers were also chased off the farm. The police removed the invaders at one stage, but they returned two days later.
'I still don't have my money'
"I wanted six months to harvest my mangos before I left the farm, because by that stage I had already pruned, irrigated and fertilised the trees. They didn't want me to harvest and said I must leave immediately," said Kgabo on Monday. "When they invaded the land, the land claims commissioner only showed up four days later - on a Saturday.
"He asked the invaders to give me enough time to settle my affairs. They (the invaders) were removed by the police, but two days later they were back and said I must pack my things immediately and leave. I feel the land claims commissioner should have prevented my land from being invaded. He promised that I would be paid 'soon', but I still don't have my money. I didn't harvest a single mango," said Kgabo.
Earlier this year, the department of rural development and land reform stated that a lack of funds is making it difficult to buy farms which have already been earmarked for ‘restitution purposes’.
- Theo de Jager, deputy president of the Agri SA lobby group representing commercial farmers, said the Banareng-ba-Mantjana community's claim was dismissed in 2001 by the former land claims commissioner, and in March 2005 the land was allocated to the Sekokoro community. "In April that year (2005), the land claims commissioner conceded that there had been an administrative error with the transfer and it would've been rectified as soon as possible.
"It's more than four years later and nothing has happened," said De Jager.
Tele Maphoto, land claims commissioner of Limpopo, said he doesn't know when Kgabo will receive his money.
- http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/b59c76ae92c342f88ed6fa47d6c2185b/22-12-2009-09-18/Invaders_order_farmer_to_leave
- http://www.herald.co.za/2009high/hweek41.pdf
- http://greatsalandscandal.blogspot.com/
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SA sits on a social time-bomb: 3-million SA youths have no jobs and get no training
2009-12-22Pretoria - South Africa is sitting on a "social time bomb" with more than three million youths between the ages of 18 and 24 who don't have jobs and don't receive any education or training, reports Beeld journalist Alet Rademeyer. According to a Ford Foundation-funded report titled "Responding to the educational needs of post-school youth", which was published recently, it is not only an educational problem, but part "of a socio-economic disaster". "Not only does it indicate a massive waste of talent, but also the possibility of serious disruption."
- In 2007, 2.8 million of the approximately 6.7 million youths between 18 and 24 had no jobs or training. Only 35.3% of them attended educational institutions.
The study was done by the Centre for Higher Education and Transformation (Chet), the Further Education and Training Institute (Feti), the government, and the Ford Foundation, which provided funding for the study.
It found that the current post-school education and working environment is characterised by the large number of students who leave without any further training opportunities. The college sector has been recapitalised, but has serious problems with regard to capacity. Furthermore, the merging of institutions also resulted in a decrease in opportunities for young people, while the Setas (sector training bodies) have failed and about two million foreign workers with relatively good qualifications have entered the labour market. The lack of participation by 18- to 24-year-olds has a very serious impact on their opportunities in life. "The two worst things that can happen, is to leave the school system between grade 10 and grade 12, and achieving matric without exemption," states the report.
It’s those ‘whites’ again…
The study found that South Africa will have to expand and improve post-school training opportunities drastically if the government wants to do something about the hopelessness of thousands of young people.
- This report also claims that between 2000 and 2007 there was little "demographic transformation" with regard to who participates in higher education. In 2000 the chances of whites being in universities were two times higher, and in 2007 it was three-and-a-half times higher.There are also ‘ deep-rooted, lasting inequalities with regard to access to and benefits from tertiary training.’ Financial help plays a major role in who goes to university and to which institutions they go.
"Unfavourable school and domestic environments influence black young adults' educational achievement and renders their individual abilities irrelevant."
The study also looked at what the product of educational achievement is, and found that people's chances to find work and earn better salaries goes hand-in-hand with better training and tertiary qualifications. People with matric earn between 40% and 70% more than those with less schooling. Those with a diploma or certificate earn between 170% and 220% more and those with degrees between 250% and 400% more than those who didn’t finish matric. The researchers recommended an investigation with regard to how the higher education sector and the college sector can work together and co-ordinate better. There must also be greater clarity regarding the target for admissions that the Higher Education Department sets for universities. Furthermore, the quality of academic personnel at colleges must be improved by means of training and exchange programmes between universities and colleges.- Beeld http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/8f784a9a3f504beaa78bd3615951bc5d/22-12-2009-07-55/SA_sitting_on_social_time_bomb
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Spain gives asylum to albino-African refugee
Albino-refugee Abdoulaye Coulibaly fled to Canary Islands to escape from witchdoctor-kidnappers…
December 22 2009 Madrid - Spain has granted asylum to an African albino for the first time. Twenty-two-year-old Malian Abdoulaye Coulibaly fled to the Canary Islands in March and was granted asylum because he was persecuted by witchdoctor kidnappers in his home country, reports said on Tuesday.
Coulibaly said he escaped several kidnap attempts in the Malian capital Bamako, El Pais newspaper reported. "Twice they tried to kidnap me to use my body," Coulibaly told El Pais. "I know they cut off the fingers and the hands of other albinos to use them in rituals."
Picture: The Dutch fund ‘Help Burundi.nl’ was set up primarily to help these albino families survive.
Beliefs surrounding "white-skinned blacks" have been entrenched in some African communities for centuries and albino body parts, used in lucky charms by traditional healers , can fetch tens of thousands of dollars. Such people are always slaughtered while still alive to ‘increase the power of the medicine’.
More than 50 albinos have been killed and dismembered
More than 50 albinos have been killed and dismembered in a spate of gruesome murders in Tanzania and Burundi in the past two years.
Tanzanian police estimate that an albino's body parts -- limbs, genitals, ears, nose and tongue -- can together fetch $75,000 (about R500,000).
"Here my life is not in danger. I have made my dream come true," said Coulibaly, who hopes to be joined in Spain by two of his brothers, also albino. His asylum bid was backed by the Malian albino singer Salif Keita, who campaigns for better protection of albinos in Africa's Great Lakes region. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also called for African governments to step up its defence of albinos and crack down on their attackers in its report “Through Albino Eyes”. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20091222125805306C903374