Mbeki See, Mbeki Do?

The president of South Africa may be getting ready to monkey around with property rights in the same economy-wrecking fashion his neighbor to the north, Robert Mugabe, did in Zimbabwe.

As of this week, when South Africa proposed for the first time the uncompensated expropriation of land held by white farmers for black resettlement [emphasis added], Mbeki looks set to sail the same course as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe (also a fine orator but a lousy leader) in handling the probably impossible task of compensating his people for his country's cruel history. But he should be careful: Complete economic and social chaos precipitated by fast-track land reforms could be the result.

The author of this article, unfortunately, agrees with the basic premise that farm land owned by whites should be redistributed to blacks -- but only slower. Nevertheless, she points out the economic disaster that will likely visit South Africa if this scheme is attempted, particularly if the land is simply handed over to blacks who do not know how to farm it!

I am the daughter of a central African farmer. I know how quickly the land and sun can swallow you out there. Of about 4,500 confiscated farms in Zimbabwe, only a couple hundred are now fully functioning. And the harvest of food staples has dropped about 90% since 2000. An estimated 2.9 million Zimbabweans need food assistance.

Alexandra Fuller also wonders aloud (I imagine for Mbeki's benefit since the recap of the Zimbabwe disaster would make this idea stillborn to all but the most obtuse.) whether the huge number of Zimbaweans now in South Africa because they fled famine might cause Mbeki's move to be unpopular. I would add that Mbeki's proposed move may not merely backfire in the short term with the majority of his voters: It risks permanently alienating a very important minority.

-- CAV