During a televised panel discussion – more of a question and
answer session during which carefully-selected ANC cadres put prepared
questions to leaders of the ANC for the purposes of a publicity campaign in
preparation for the upcoming municipal elections – the Minister of Water
Affairs let slip a frightening new idea.
She stated that the Government is taking steps to ensure water security
to the ‘poor people’ of the country. One
of these steps is the plan to “remove control of privately-owned and –constructed
dams from the White farmers” and make the water they contain available to the community. There are several aspects of this statement that
need careful consideration, because of their very wide implications to the
agricultural and investment community.
A brief background to this comment is a statement made by
the State President that the ANC is the leader in ensuring racial harmony and
equality throughout the country. This
statement is no more than a barefaced lie.
The ANC, and particularly the State Presidents since Nelson Mandela,
have been a potent force in the racialization of the country, after the racial
conciliation of Nelson Mandela. Jacob
Zuma has put considerable effort into ratcheting up the racial tension,
presumably in the hope of attracting the votes of the increasing poor Black
sector of the economy, making statements such as that blaming all the problems
of the country on Jan van Riebeeck, the first Governor of the colony in 1652, a
man who was in that position for only seven years, and other statements to the
effect that White capital is purposely depriving poor Blacks of work
opportunities by their recruitment policies and by holding a ‘monopoly’ position
in many aspects of the economy. Of
course, statements such as this are, at best, cheap politicking and, at worst,
purposefully intended to enhance the racial divide, a remarkably stupid action
given that the Whites represent probably 90% of the knowledge assets and 95% of
the experienced skills base of the economy.
The reasons for this are partly historical, in that it requires many
years for a manager of an organization to acquire the ability to manage
effectively (as has been so clearly demonstrated by the abjectly poor
performance of the ANC cadres who have been elevated to top positions in
organisations such as Eskom, Spoornet, SAA, Petro SA and numerous others
without having gained the necessary experience and competencies, and partly the
result of the incredibly poor education that the ANC has foisted on the country
since its accession to power 21 years ago.
Whatever the reason, the fact is that driving the Whites away, which
appears to be the policy of the ANC and the EFF, will certainly result in a
catastrophic collapse of all sectors of the South African economy.
One aspect is that the statement is a clear indication of
the intention of the Government to steal the dams owned by the White farmers,
who constructed these dams for two main reasons. The first reason for the construction of the
dams is the need to manage the flow of water over the farm lands. In South Africa, the rain tends to be
irregular and in huge quantities at one time, leading to drought conditions or
to flooding, with the erosion of the valuable top soil being a frequent
result. That is important to the farmer,
any farmer, including one of another racial group, although the concentration
of the new policy on White farmers tends to demonstrate the fact that Black
farmers have, historically, been less prudent in the management of water flows
to prevent erosion. The second reason,
of course, is a desire to ensure the availability of water in times of
scarcity. As a water-poor country, that
investment has been a prime reason why South Africa, in the past, was a
substantial exporter of food to the world.
Now the Government plans to deprive the White farmers (please note that
the plan does not seem intended to apply to Black farmers) of their right to
use the water they have worked to save.
The water will become subject to the management of one of the many
incompetent Government bodies, to be made available to communities and Black
farmers that have invested nothing to make it available, so depriving the (productive)
White farmers on an essential element of their farming and food-producing
activities. What little water the
management body may deign to make available to the White farmers will, no
doubt, be at a high cost, as per the example of Eskom, and the discretion of
allowing that ration to the White farmers will hand the Government another tool
to drive the White farmers from the country at no direct cost to the
Government. Farmers with experience know
that a valuable asset such as water is not to be wasted. They know equally that the cost of building
and maintaining a dam is high, in terms of cash, time and deprivation of the
use of the land it occupies. Farmers do
not build dams capriciously, or to deprive others of the use of the water (this
latter has been shown admirably by the generosity of White farmers in springing
to the assistance of Black farmers in the present drought by the provision of
water from their own resources, often at the risk of running out of water themselves,
or providing grazing or fodder to suffering Black farmers). The dams that the Government now plans to
steal are very important assets that are needed for the continued life of the
farms. Appropriation of them by the
Government will be akin to a theft of the seed grown by the farmers (perhaps on
the basis that the starving poor need them now, while the ‘wealthy’ farmers
will need them only in the future and, in any event, can afford to buy more) or
the appropriation of the lambs or calves produced on the farm.
A frightening thought is the extension of this sort of
policy by the ANC. They have already
stolen the BBEEE proportion of the share capital of companies and of their
allocation of salary and related expenses by companies in order to reduce the
number of unemployed, almost always at significant cost to the companies
involved in terms of profitability and longevity, and to the country in
galloping inflation and nose-diving international competitiveness. The demand that a proportion of the
shareholding in mining companies be held by Black shareholders who are unable
to offer either capital or skills has been one material cause in the reduction
of investment by foreign companies in the industry in South Africa and the
driving away of some investors who were already here (one international client
alone left the country, with $254 000 000 –R4,3 billion at the
current rate of exchange - of direct investment already made and the
cancellation of several other investment plans in local industry, helped by the
illegal and immoral actions of the South African Reserve Bank and the South
African Revenue Services, and numerous other clients, hearing the story, have
backed off intended investments in the country). The results of these regulations are clear to
see in the current state of South Africa.
However, they have been implemented by Zimbabwe, that model country in
the field of economic management, so, to the State President, an earnest
admirer of Robert Mugabe, they must be right!
One can only wonder which sector of the economy will be the
next target.
No comments:
Post a Comment