Opinion / Letters LETTER: SA needs Middle Way BL PREMIUM

SA’s history is littered with clashes between whites and blacks over land. Battles were fought and surprises resulted when sharing the land, most notably that blacks often outperformed whites in farming and general entrepreneurship. After the Boer War it was realised that blacks were so self-sufficient that few wanted to work on the mines for the pittance offered. The Randlords prevailed on the government to deprive blacks of their undisputed ownership of their land. The seminal tuning point was the infamous Land Act of 1913. For the next 80 years black people suffered untold hardships. After 1994 it was expected that blacks would regain their true share of the land and that their latent entrepreneurial zeal would surface. Unknown is the fact that entrepreneurs only flourish when they are able to own land and property, and are able to build up capital. Vacant land abounds in SA, yet few black people can afford it. The economic history of Africa after independence shows a common char...