“Your time is up, white people,” South African politician Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi offered.
This woman, who belongs to the Economic Freedom Fighters, a “far left” political party, is defending something Frédéric Bastiat would have dubbed the very worst kind of “legal plunder”: in this case, a land grab from white farmers to give to (some) blacks, without compensation.
“White South Africans could be forced to give up their own homes from next year as the nation’s government steamrolls through plans for land expropriation,” Zoie O’Brien reports for Britain’s Daily Mail. Why? Well, “over claims ‘Africa’s original sin’ must be reversed.”
There will be no reversal, of course. Not of “Africa’s original sin,” which, I dare suggest, mischaracterizes the problems of South Africa.
And yes, I know, it is complicated, since “many in the nation see the move as retribution.” For past white supremacist racial policies.
But justice simply cannot be two wrongs. For what is happening in South Africa is the gearing up for a mass crime.
They call it “land reform,” of course. Lots of tragedies begin that way. Ask the people of the country formerly called Rhodesia.
I’ve referred to South Africa’s gross dysfunction before. There appears to be an instinctive media downplaying of this matter, largely because of past racism and the “white people bad” mentality now too common.
Your time is up, white people. Racism. Sure. (No point in just calling it “reverse racism.”) A crime against the owners of property. The wrong way to address problems, surely.
And ominous, for rarely does an enormity like this stop just there.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
3 replies on “And So It Begins”
Terribly wrong headed and counterproductive, two wrongs can never create a right but bad examples are commonly replicated.
Not a precoursor of a prosperous and progressing African continent.
The effects of this action cannot be foreseen, but they are probably myriad.
Start with a decrease in tourism. Why would people visit a country whose leader doesn’t welcome them? Does South Africa seek foreign investment? Why would any sane person invest in a country that doesn’t safeguard property rights? What about trade? Expropriation of land also means expropriation of businesses that reside on that land. If those businesses currently sell their products abroad, it could mean a loss of capital if new owners fail to keep the business operating profitably or if they renege on past contracts.
If that, then sanctions everything INCLUDING university
endowments that invest in anything that has anything to do with South Africa. Like they did before the Communists took over.