The fiery bluster of right-wing farmers has given way=20 to a more pragmatic approach over the new labour=20 tenants’ Bill, reports Eddie Koch
EDDIE von Maltitz swaggered around with a 9mm=20 parabellum strapped to his waist. The vierkleur,=20 pennant of the ultra-right, was flying at the entrance.=20 And murmurs of malcontent rumbled through the ranks as=20 thousands of farmers who had mustered to resist the=20 government’s “communist” land policies were asked to=20 welcome the media.
So, when the boot of a scowling man six feet and some=20 inches tall crushed my toes, I put it down to=20 harassment of the kind usually experienced by=20 journalists at these rallies. “Ekskuus,” said the giant=20 who, in case I couldn’t understand his language, added=20 that he was “so sorry man”.
That was the mood that stamped itself on the=20 showgrounds in Newcastle, a grim coal-mining town in=20 KwaZulu-Natal, where some 4 000 boers rolled up in=20 bakkies and Mercedes-Benzes from around the country to=20 present Land Affairs minister Derek Hanekom with the=20 biggest challenge yet to his land reform laws.
There were occasional outbursts of fiery rhetoric.=20 “Take a trip to the battlefields around here if you=20 want to understand what the land means to us,” a farmer=20 told journalists during tea break, pointing to the=20 hills where Boer commandos fought British troops and=20 Zulu warriors in the wars of colonial conquest that=20 wracked this region last century.
The media crews came expecting a brigade of khaki-clad=20 men who would vow to throw the country back into the=20 violent events that marred the run-up to this country’s=20 freedom elections. But the temper that resonated among=20 most of the men who packed the Newcastle hall, many=20 dressed as if they were at a Sunday church service, was=20 pragmatic, civil, even sensible.=20
And, up on the podium, the proceedings were being=20 orchestrated not by apocalyptic poets of the far-right=20 but by a yuppie lawyer in a pin-stripe suit and silk=20 tie who, despite the occasional diatribe against Land=20 Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom, spoke the language of=20
The Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Bill, passed by the=20 Cabinet and gazetted last month so that the public can=20 comment on it before it becomes law, was the main=20 target of attack, mainly because, unlike earlier land=20 redistribution measures, it provides for land to be=20 expropriated from the current owners of “labour farms”.
These are large estates, mainly in the south-eastern=20 areas of the Eastern Transvaal and the northern reaches=20 of KwaZulu-Natal surrounding Newcastle, where some 40=20 000 black families have lived for generations, and now=20 provide free, or virtually free, labour in exchange for=20 a small patch of land for subsistence farming.
“The proposals for action that I am going to propose=20 are quite drastic and dramatic,” said the young lawyer=20 called Phillip Nel. He heads up the Agricultural=20 Employers’ Organisation (AEO), which claims 7 000=20 farmers as members and organised the Newcastle rally=20 along with the Transvaal, Orange Free State and=20 KwaZulu-Natal agricultural unions. “So I am going to=20 give all of you a chance to make suggestions from the=20 floor first.”
What followed was lots of Hanekom bashing. “Let him=20 come and work next to me with those lily-white hands,”=20 said one man. “We should ask Mandela to give him a=20 blitzkursus (crash course) in what to do,” said=20 another. “We have got a wise president, but there are=20 people in his midst who don’t know what they are=20
Then … that voice of reason again. “It doesn’t help=20 to sit back and complain. We have to accept that=20 agriculture has to undergo a transformation,” said a=20 farmer called Wessel Nel, to applause from the crowd.=20 “April 27 has happened and the duty of organised=20 agriculture is now to help. We are the people who can=20 help to make sure that land is given to small-scale and=20 productive farmers who work.”
Now it was time for the young lawyer to present his=20 “dramatic” proposals. There were four of them, each=20 accepted in essence by the crowd as a way forward.
* It was demanded that a negotiating forum be set up=20 comprising provincial and national officials from=20 organised agriculture to negotiate with the government=20 on how to implement land reform. In the meantime, the=20 labour tenants’ Bill should be remanded and Hanekom=20 should appoint a “designated person” to liaise on a=20 full-time basis with farmers on issues and conflicts=20 arising from the labour tenant system.=20
* “We understand that there are needs for (black)=20 people to acquire land. We share this viewpoint,” said=20 Nel. He proceeded to propose that all owners of “labour=20 farms” should consider selling their estates to the=20 government, strictly at market rates and on a “willing- buyer-willing-seller basis”, so that the minister could=20 have “more land than he dreamt of” for redistribution.=20 Forms were distributed among the crowd so that farmers=20 willing to sell could give the AEO a mandate to offer=20 up their land.
* A demand that a committee of farmers from each of=20 the 17 districts affected by the labour tenants’ Bill=20 be set up so that ordinary farmers “can get together to=20 discuss and negotiate this thing”.
* And then the really radical resolution, one taken=20 straight from the strategies of township civic=20 organisations: “If Derek Hanekom goes on with this law,=20 then we reserve the right as farmers to stop all=20 payments to the provinces and the central government.=20 If we are to be arrested, then we will say ‘Where must=20 we report so we can do it now?'”.
The farmers cheered in jubilation. One of them tried to=20 pass a motion of no confidence in the Minister of Land=20 Affairs, but was asked by an agricultural union=20 official on the podium to withdraw it, “because we=20 might pick up some dissent if we go that far”. And=20 voices in the crowd asked if they could go soon after=20 lunchtime because many of them had driven long=20 distances and had work to do before dark.
Commercial farms in South Africa, most of them=20 currently owned by white men, provide five to six=20 million of the poorest people in the countryside with=20 their only means of survival. Eddie von Maltitz, leader=20 of the ultra-right Resistance Against Communism, puts=20 it in racist terms. “Take the white man out of Africa=20 and Africa will die.”=20
John Sender, a left-wing academic from the School of=20 Oriental and African Studies in London, argues that=20 there is a need for land redistribution to be balanced=20 with policies which keep productive and adaptable=20 owners — “those capable of achieving the macroeconomic=20 goals of raising employment, real wages, agro- industrial output, and exports” — on the land.
The rally at Newcastle was a measure of the way a=20 substantial section of white farmers is responding to=20 the land question. They accept that redistribution is=20 inevitable and that their labour policies will have to=20 change. Their demands have shifted from reaction to=20 requests for the right to participate in the pace and=20 style of change.
The meeting was also a signal that the neo-fascist=20 movements of this country are on the wane, overshadowed=20 by pragmatic men of the soil who want to rebuild a=20 productive system in the countryside for themselves and=20 their children, who will inhabit the countryside in=20 generations to come.
“There were plenty of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging=20 members in the crowd,” Von Maltitz told me after the=20 meeting. “They want to give this approach a chance to=20 work. We want to try and help this Hanekom and to=20 become players in the game.We’ll keep our eye on the=20 ball, because if we don’t, we know we’ll lose it.”
Derek Hanekom would do well to hear their voices. That=20 way the paramilitary uniforms can remain where they are=20 now, being eaten by moths. The khaki-clad prophets of=20 the right can remain on their farms, drinking brandy=20 and coke. And the battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal can=20 stay as they should be, places for inquisitive tourists=20 to come and visit in peace.