I have been receiving regular comments from an individual on my recent posts on Land Expropriation without compensation in South Africa. I wrote this reply, and while it is somewhat scattered, it has some good bits in there.
First comment on video Land Expropriation is not a Holistic Solution
I do not address the issue of land because land is not the issue. 100 years ago land was the issue, but all the people who were alive in those times are now dead and the culture in South Africa has changed drastically. The issues now faced in South Africa are issues shared across most of the world. There are a small handful of people who control the majority of wealth and resources, whilst the majority of people squabble over scraps. The issue is now an economic apartheid, where the rich hide away in their fairytale lives, while everyone else must face the repeated injustices of a broken system. I have in the past advocated for things like basic income and redistribution of wealth, though I have since that time realised that those initiatives will not work if the people who are implementing them (in other words, all of us) do not fundamentally change how we think and live. The world system is a reflection of us, WE are its creators - if we are still greedy, selfish, small minded people in a different economic and social structure, then we will simply recreate a similar variation to what we have created today.
So I am not saying that land redistribution is not needed - what I am saying is that it is only one of many things needed, and if it is done now, with how corrupt, incompetent and ineffective the South African government is, it is sure to fail. The biggest issues that the land claims initiative faced included the fact that the government placed hundreds of people on properties that require vast knowledge and capital in order to continue functioning as they did before the claim - yet the government did not provide this. The people found themselves on land in a country where it is notoriously difficult to grow anything, even on a subsistence scale, without the funds required to create some semblance of a good life. Often this land are sold off in small plots, which is usually done illegally, therefore granting NO ownership rights to the buyers, who are almost always black. Because the property does not get rezoned correctly, the buyers end up not being able to apply for the supply of electricity, water or refuse collection from the municipality - effectively creating a new squatter camp. Obviously this does not happen in every case, but I have witnessed it myself, not more than 20km from where I live - along with multiple other properties going to ruin after being claimed. Simply giving land to people IS NOT ENOUGH. Land is nothing when you don't have the resources (money, knowledge, skills, equipment) to actually do something with it. Furthermore, growing anything here is quite challenging in a lot of the country. The climate is not forgiving, the soil is often not high quality, and the pests are something else entirely. Even subsistence farming can be a huge challenge.
I have actually been looking online to try find out how much land in South Africa is public land. Turns out that no one knows exactly, but the average guess is at around 20% (14% confirmed as state-owned, and 7% "unaccounted for" http://www.ruraldevelopment.gov.za/phocadownload/Cadastral-Survey-management/Booklet/land%20audit%20booklet.pdf). That's a whhoooole lot of hectares. In KZN, about 30% of the province is owned by Ingonyama Trust as tribal land, managed by the Zulu King, out of a total of 50% of the province owned by the state. Any Zulu may live on this land - with the permission of the local chief. They however will not own the land they live on. The chief has the authority to instruct any person within their jurisdiction to leave at any time, at their discretion. Essentially, the people living there do not have any security in terms of land ownership, plus they have to pay a percentage of any money they make on the land to their chief. Oh and let's also not forget that these chiefs, and the King, all receive salaries from the government. The King lives in a palace. Public services in this tribal land are rudimentary. There are roads, and some people living close to roads will have electricity and telephone lines. Many people do not live close enough to a major grocery in order to enjoy luxuries such as fresh milk. Because the people living here lack basic things like ownership rights and such, they tend not to take care of the land very well. It is overrun with invasive plant species that degrade the natural habitats and decrease grazing for the cattle. The land is set on fire at least once a year in the dry winter months, causing even more loss of grasslands, soil erosion, and giving the aggressive invaders more opportunity to expand. I'm telling you all of these things because it seems like you are not familiar with the realities of living here. The challenges that we face in developing solutions are part of a network of issues, and all of these issues boil back down to things like education, developing critical thinking skills, access to information that comes from varied sources. The pass requirement for grade 12 in SA is 30 - 40 %. There are serious issues with education here, not least of which are underqualified teachers lacking the skills and interest required to effectively develop young minds into being critical, objective thinkers. There is so much more I can say on the issues in South Africa (and globally) - but for now let me move on to your second comment.
Comment on video I Swear I'm not Crazy
In case you were not aware, politics is not my usual topic of discussion. So if you choose to follow my content, then please do not expect it to always be on that subject. My focus is on the human mind and behaviour, and specifically on changing ourselves. You ask me what I am doing - I am not out in the streets trying to give land to the disadvantaged. I focus on providing educational content, meant to trigger different ways of looking at ourselves & the world so that more people can realise that "maybe I can be better, maybe who I have been is actually not set in stone". I would like to develop or be part of holistic initiatives that address the social issues we face on all levels, though as yet I have not found any movement that does that. I am OK with creating such a movement, though forgive me if I do not yet know how to do that and need time to put it together in my limited spare time. If I were to start a fund to buy a large piece of land, then it would be to create a pilot project similar to what I envision here http://equallife.org/index.php/projects/pilot - I will not do something like just give land to people, there must be a support structure as well for the people who are given the land, to ensure the best chance for success. A support structure would have to include education, skill development, resources like funding, building materials, equipment, mental health care, etc in order to actually build a life, plus deal with whatever issues they may have (including addiction, domestic violence, insufficient knowledge on healthcare etc.)