Question for Chris Wilson

[Bruce]

Chris,
Can you update me on the following;

Is President Mbeki declaring white farmers sell their land at government set prices by making the same catastrophic land seizures err...reforms, that have prompted the economic collapse of the country under Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe?(1000% inflation and 80% unemployment)

Zimbabwe of today may be RSA in 10 years . . . but considering the stubborn streak of the Boers, there may be more than one Martin Olds for RSA's government to deal with - it could get very messy.

Bruce

[AndreF]

Bruce,
Have you read Covenant by Mitchner? It's a great history of Africa. My Uncle spent 6 years in Kenya during the 50's during the Maomao (?sic?) revolution and told me many stories of life in the bush . He gave us many artifacts that I have , including ivory.

[Bruce]

Yes I have.
I always considered the Boers a highly mobile and formitable guerilla force who gave the British quite a fit.

We could have learned valuable lessons in studying their type of fighting for use in Vietnam, Afganistan and Iraq. But our military leaders have still not got it that text book military tactics don't work against these types of fighters as Israel just found out.

A guy that hires me from time to time for things other than marine, spent 25 years down there for Uncle Sam and got me interested in the African continent with his stories.

[chris_wilson]

Hi Bruce

For some time now S Africa has had land reform legislation (since 1994). Main differences between here and Zimbabwe are as follows:
Only a small percentage of land has been earmarked for restitution to black owners.
Government does not expropriate but pays market prices.
The black recipients of the land must prove that they were the previous owners when it was taken by the old government.
In rare instances where the present owner refuses to accept market value, government has swopped other land for the land under restitution.

Unfortunately Zimbabwe under Mad Bob is the joke of southern Africa. The local population are fleeing to SA on mass. It is a pity because it was a great country. The only good news is that Bob won't live forever.

Chris