ANC using land as camouflage to attack white people - Moeletsi Mbeki
"I'm totally unworried about ANC and EFF propaganda on land expropriation. It has nothing to do with land, it's about the ANC losing elections," says political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki.
He was speaking at a Nation of Conversation panel discussion as part of the Nampo Harvest Day in Bothaville.
"This is not about land. It is about the loss of votes by the ANC and its little son, the EFF. They think they can bring back the voters who are abandoning the ANC by attacking the white population. It's an attack on the white citizens of South Africa. They're using this as a camouflage to attack the white population.
"It is supported and reinforced by the famous black racist, Mr [Julius] Malema, who is very eloquent. Malema is actually now leading the ANC's election campaign by attacking white people."
Mbeki added that the party was making a mistake building its election campaign around land as black voters were far more economically literate than they were credited for.
"They're not interested in race issues, they're interested in what's happening the economy. The reason they're abandoning the ANC is precisely because its economic policies have failed. In fact, the ANC's economic policies have led to the deindustrialisation of the economy," he said.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said that the agriculture sector has taken a massive battering in the last decade in terms of the drought and it was exacerbated by poor policy implementation, creating a massive sense of uncertainty in the last few years of the Jacob Zuma presidency.
"Government must not see commercial agriculture as the bogey man. They're doing incredible work, far more than government, in empowering small farmers," he said.
AfriForum's Kallie Kriel, who was also part of the panel, said he did not have the luxury of not worrying about ANC propaganda around land reform, as his experience with government has been that they make many promises about protecting everyone's right but don't follow through.
"At the moment, there's an official ANC policy to expropriate without compensation. There's reason for us to take this seriously, not to be alarmist, but to take it seriously and say what can we do to stop this from going ahead. Are we going to sit back and hope for the best? I don't think that's the best way to do it.
"If you're going to say we want to promote expropriation without compensation, you are acting against the interests of the country. To go elsewhere to stop us becoming Zimbabwe or Cuba, that is an act of patriotism. Of course, there will be people whose blood pressure rises when we do that, but so be it. This is in the interest of the people."
