Ernst Roets, Deputy CEO of the AfriForum civil rights group, denounced South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the black nationalist Economic Free Fighters (EFF) in a parliamentary hearing, branding the people behind the proposed seizure of white-owned land corrupt, racist, and hypocritical, and dismissing the “whites stole the land” narrative as “the single biggest historical fallacy of our time”.
The Afrikaner, author of Kill the Boer: Government Complicity in South Africa’s Brutal Farm Murders, told the Constitutional Review Committee, which is currently considering amendments to allow South Africa’s government to legally expropriate land without compensating the owners, that the policy “shows disrespect for property rights as a basic human right.”
“The ANC and its alliance partners are rooted in Marxism-Leninism. According to its own strategy and tactics documents the movement believes in a national democratic revolution which implies that as much power must be centralised in the state as is permissible… so that the state mechanisms can be used to further the goals of the revolution, which is to move South Africa down the path of socialism, eventually to create a Communist utopia,” he blasted.
“That is why disastrous policies like those of the Soviet Union, Communist China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela are frequently venerated by the ANC alliance, while the policies which have created the world’s wealthiest and most harmonious societies are depicted as racist, oppressive policies.
Roets then provoked fury by proclaiming boldly: “It is regularly argued, especially in this House, that whites stole the land. This is the single biggest historical fallacy of our time.”
“There are three ways in which white people acquired land,” he explained. “Namely, the settlement of empty land, the purchase of land through treaties, co-operation, and agreements, and — most controversial but least significant — by conquest.”
He agreed that legislation like the Native Land Act of 1913 and the Group Areas Act of 1950 were “injustices” which “must be dealt with” — but argued they must be dealt with “specifically, and not used to construct grand false narratives or to advance new racist policies.”
He said that if the ANC/EFF’s argument is that “ownership of land by whites should be regarded as illegitimate because Africa is the black people’s continent, then [they] should be prepared to join forces with white, right-wing fascists in Europe who argue that Europe is white people’s continent, and that there is therefore no place for black people in Europe.”
“If you argue that white people in Africa shouldn’t receive equal treatment, but that the rights of black people in Europe should be protected, then you are nothing other than a racist hypocrite,” he declared.
Roets accused the government of “enrich[ing] itself at the expense of the people”, and that its “assault on private property” would frighten away investors, damage the economy, and increase unemployment.
Addressing the ANC’s assurances that the land grabs can be carried out without any economic ill-effects — apparently accepted by Theresa May’s government in the United Kingdom — Roets was scathing.
“Claiming that property rights could be eroded and that economic freedom could be compromised in a way that would enhance economic development is like claiming that KFC could be expanded in a way that would ensure chickens would prosper.”
“The gratification that the ANC/EFF alliance get from hurting the middle class and the wealthy outweighs the desire to uplift poor people,” he accused.
“The problem, however, is that expropriation and the consequential economic collapse will hurt poor people more than wealthy people, who will simply leave the country. In which case you will not only create a food shortage for all South Africans… but also lose your tax base,” he warned.
“We should not let this issue get derailed into a racial issue,” Roets concluded.
“Unforutnately, the President [Cyril Ramaphosa] has already done so when he used the words ‘our people’ to refer to black people; the Deputy President did so when he threatened a violent takeover if white people didn’t voluntarily hand over their land to black people; [the] Minister for Co-operative Governance… did so when he said that no property of any black person or black group would be appropriated,” he said.
“It has become a popular past-time for members of this house to blame every white person for the crimes of every other white person. Imagine if we blamed every black person for the crimes of every other black person?” he asked, referring to a massacre of hundreds of Afrikaaner Voortrekkers — mostly women and children — and indigenous Khoikhoi and Basuto people by the Zulus in the 1830s, and to murder in general.
“We would all agree that such claims would be regarded as grossly racist and intolerably unfair… You are drunk on ideology. It is an ideology not based on historic accuracy, but a desperate attempt to foment racial hatred and division with the true aim of advancing state power and hopeless socialism under the banner of corrective measures.
“Yes, you are drunk on ideology, the ideology of the obviously failing national democratic revolution.
“You are drunk on power, since every decision you make is an attempt to gather more power and control into your hands.
“You are drunk on hatred and contempt, not only for white people, but for the poorest South Africans who suffer under your policies daily, and will suffer even more if you continue to destroy the economy and to sow hatred and division.”
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