Reading all the articles about our agriculture minister, one fact is very clear to me – Lulama Xingwana clearly has it in for the white farming community. She is obviously extremely bitter about what happened in the past, which she probably is entitled to be. She may have reason to be bitter, but it’s now her responsibility to look after agriculture in a reasonable and responsible way for the long-term benefit of all South Africans.
I think the problem is that she’s as racist as every other human being on the planet and is abusing her position of power to try to get revenge for the past – instead of doing the job she’s paid to do. The problem is that although racism (in my opinion) is a naturally occurring emotion in the majority of humans (probably a survival instinct), it’s an emotion that we should suppress when making decisions. Any decisions based purely on emotion are likely to be the wrong ones in the long run.
Yes, Lulama, I’m sure you would get some gratification in the short term from taking my land from me. The people who voted for you and support you would also get short-term gratification from my misery. It would hurt me for a while, but I’ll bounce back doing something else, I promise you. The people you will really hurt will be my employees, who you would have forced me to retrench from secure jobs. Now what? You could probably convince them that all the problems they then have are actually my fault and they would probably believe you – but that won’t ease their suffering.
And those who occupy my land and try to make a go of farming it, would suffer too. They would realise that farming is not an easy way to make money. would end up frustrated and no better off than where they came from. Most land reform is a “lose-lose” practice, judging by what I’ve seen in my area so far. I think you should control your bitterness towards white people as a result of our past and do your best to make decisions that could actually benefit the poor, not just give them the short-term gratification that revenge provides.
I think all South Africans should accept the fact that we are capable of racist feelings, but we should do our utmost to control such negative emotions. It’s a destructive emotion and can easily cause us to make decisions we could regret in the future. We should try to at least tolerate one another. Politicians use racism as a tool to inflame emotion when things don’t go their way – no skill is required. Don’t trust such people – they are using your emotions for selfish political reasons only.
By the way, I bought my farm in 1998 (at the dawn of the “New SA”), four years after the end of apartheid. can’t understand how me having a farm has anything to do with apartheid.
Warren Bartholmew
Hazyview
