By Matthew Field
Matthew is a matric student from Pretoria. He was
selected as one of News24’s 100 Young Mandelas, and he represented South Africa
at the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships. He is a passionate
South African with a deep love for his country.
I do not want to die. I do not
want any of us to die. It is as simple as that.
I had the pleasure of
listening to a high-school public speaking competition this past week. It was
in the North West. I was truly impressed by their eloquence and confidence. I
was also frightened. These children were angry. My fellow born-frees were
angry.
I cannot blame them for this
anger. I feel partly responsible. They are angry for one of the most
understandable reasons in existence. They are angry, because their land was
taken from them.
My great great grandfather
came to South Africa as a diamond dealer and a land owner. Yes, one of those. My
parents and grandparents received university education. They all had
white-collar jobs. And I mean that literally. To have those jobs, you had to be
white. They worked in IT, architecture, surgical nursing and public relations. Let’s
just say Verwoerd cut us a good deal. Look at where I am now. I am private
school educated, and I am on track to be a third-generation university student.
Tell me white privilege is not real.
The point I am getting at is
that we, being ‘white’ people, benefited greatly from a system. This was a
system that was so repugnant, so repulsive, that I do not think you can call
yourself human if you support it.
One of the many legacies of
this system is my reason for writing this piece.
Today I am going to talk
about Land Reform.
Don’t shoot me just yet!
I realize that this is a very
contentious issue. Apart from a few exceptions, most South Africans will agree
that the land was stolen and that it must be given back. So, if I try to
convince these people of that, I would just be preaching to the choir.
Therefore, I am going to
appeal to the minority of readers: those who are against land redistribution.
Earlier I said that there is
one thing I care about:
I do not want to die.
On a bigger scale, I do not
want us to die. And right now, by not supporting Land Reform, we are playing a
game of Russian Roulette. Except in this game, all six chambers are filled, and
we find ourselves trigger happy. South Africans, if we do not give back the
land, that gun will go off.
You think gunpowder makes a
big explosion! Just wait and see what it looks like for a country to explode.
Our country is angry. Not
because of what any born-free did, but because of what our ancestors did. And
they did evil things: the 1913 Land Act, Cecil Rhodes instigating the Boer War,
abusing miners, the hut tax, the Frontier Wars, the British sucking a cassus
belli out of their thumbs to make war on the Zulu, the Treason Trial, the
murders of Biko, Timol and thousands of patriots.
The biggest of all was the
first one I mentioned: The Land Act, and all subsequent legislation. There is
an old struggle song that says it better than I ever could. It is called ‘Thina Sizwe.’
A partial translation for
that song is is:
We the black nation
Are weeping for our land
And how quickly tears can
turn to fire. We are in danger, South Africa.
We have two options. Either,
we all come together to pursue land redistribution, or you will see millions of
South Africans rising up to claim what is theirs.
I do not speak simply of
transferring from minority ownership to majority ownership. The issue is more
complicated than that. What is made of the huge swathes of land that are in
government hands? How does this apply to urban areas? Who is entitled to land?
What happens to those whose land has been expropriated?
These are questions that we must
ask ourselves. If we do not, South Africa will likely become a failed state.
However, we must also realize that we can only ask these questions now – before
it is too late. South Africa is an angry place. She is running out of patience
for asking questions. The most dangerous thing we can do is leave this process
for later. It is too dangerous to wait. Our people have waited long enough.
They will wait no longer. That is not meant to sound pretty. It is a downright
warning. When a country is forced to wait, it becomes irritated. Irritation
leads to anger. Anger leads to violence. Violence leads to destruction on both
sides. We must ask those essential questions, now. We need to sort out what
land redistribution means, now!
I am shocked when I still
hear:
‘Oh no we’ll end up like
Zimbabwe…’
Yes, we will, if we do not
let Land Reform happen now! If we wait, if we let the pressure build, if we let
the anger simmer, we will plunge our nation into civil war. You already have
extremist doomsday preppers stocking up food for this occurrence. But it can be
stopped. Land Redistribution is going to happen. That is out of anyone’s
control. What our country can control is how this happens.
We can either give the land
over peacefully, or we can plunge our country into the unending fire. We can
choose action now that will save us, or we can take the tantalizing road of
patience. This road of patience is paved with good intentions
‘Our economy can’t take it now,’ they say.
‘Investors will leave,’ they say.
‘Food security, unemployment, corruption…’
But let us not forget that
the road to hell, too, is paved with good intentions.
And hey, those arguments make
sense. We need to worry about the economy and we need to worry about food
security. And it is because of these concerns that we need land Reform now! We
need a peaceful, controlled redistribution of land. We need farmers, workers
and dispossessed peoples at the negotiating table. Like 1994, we need to peacefully
discuss who gets the land.
And in terms of economy, you cannot
have true growth when the means of production are centralized in the hands of a
few. And I do not mean ‘white’ people. It is a group smaller than that. It is a
few thousand farmers that basically own our country. That is not capitalism.
That is feudalism. And worse, if we take the road of inaction, we will see what
it is like for the economy to burn.
You will see what it is like
to lose your food security, when South Africans take back what is rightfully
theirs. You will see how bad disinvestment can be, when all of those channels
are burnt in the fires of civil war. My fellow South Africans, this Civil War
is coming. But like 1994, we can stop it. We can stop it by negotiating. We can
stop it by giving back the land now.
Already, the issue is being hijacked
by populists. They do not care about the people of South Africa! They are not
giving us a plan. They have no plan. They just want votes! We need to fix this
before they get the chance to. We need to save our country while we still can.
Reading this are the brightest
minds in the country. No. The world.
Humanity cannot afford to
lose you to the jaws of war.
We cannot afford to let this
experiment die. We cannot, like fools, put out our small candle of freedom. We
are a new, yet bright, beacon of democracy in a world that is increasingly
turning its back on rule of the people, for the people. We are a nation which
has overcome struggles that would have sank most others. We did this because of
our unique South African spirit. We cannot let that spirit die. The world needs
us. Humanity needs us. History is calling on you, dear South African.
Please, answer the call. Let
us end this, before it ends us.
