Democracy or Anarchy?
White South African farmers are worried about their future. Their government says it will prevent a Zimbabwe-style land grab, where the government is encouraging black farmers to forcibly take over white-owned land. But because the government doesn’t back up its word, these farmers increasingly find themselves with no place to turn.
Two years ago, Braam, a farmer who lives about 25 miles outside of Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, went to court to have land invaders who were illegally occupying his farm removed. These people had walked onto his private land and made it their home, erecting shacks, shops, butcheries and preschools and trying to grow crops. The Witwatersrand High Court ordered the eviction of 6,000 squatters in April 2001, but the government never lifted a finger to enforce the order. Since then, people have continued to arrive by the busload.
Currently there are over 40,000 people in squatter camps where Braam’s soybean and fodder fields once were. “We’re coming to shoot you and your family” is a threat Braam receives on a regular basis. Having lived on the farm for over 37 years, and having no place else to go, he replies, “If I must die, I die” (Farmer’s Weekly, Oct. 11, 2002).
Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s president and head of the African National Congress/South African Communist Party (anc/sacp) alliance, along with other political officials, has regularly appeared on national television and in the press saying that the situation in Zimbabwe (see December 2002 issue) will not be permitted to happen in South Africa. At the same time, Mbeki and other left-wing leaders in South Africa have shown, by their silence and inaction, that they condone (or at least tolerate) Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s hateful rhetoric against his country’s former colonial rulers. They have done nothing to discourage a similar development occurring in South Africa. If any disagreement exists between Mbeki and Mugabe, it is only with the economically devastating way Mugabe enacted the reform. What Mugabe is achieving in Zimbabwe by direct action is steadily being achieved in South Africa by attrition under Mbeki.
Communist Agenda
Notice one of the “guiding principles” taken directly from the sacp’s Constitution (emphasis mine throughout): “To end the system of capitalist exploitation in South Africa and to establish a socialist society based on the common ownership of, participation in, and control by the producers of the key means of production. Such a society will respect and protect all personal non-exploitative property and such other private property as may be necessary for effective economic development and growth.”
In other words, if the anc/sacp decides the use of black labor by a white farmer or businessman is, in their eyes, exploitative (or used for personal profit), it will jeopardize ownership of his personal property.
Here is another statement from its Constitution: “By participating in this [national democratic] revolution, the sacp aims to eradicate patriarchal relations, weaken and ultimately destroy the economic and political power of the capitalist class through struggle for working class hegemony over society, in particular the ownership and control of the economy and the achievement of one united state of people’s power.”
While President Mbeki may come across as meek as a lamb, he is still, at his core, communist. He wants to wrest control of the capital in South Africa.
Make no mistake: The agenda of the rulers of South Africa is the same as Mugabe’s in Zimbabwe: removal of the white farmers and businessmen from the republic.
South Africa Land Reform
At this time, South Africa’s “land reform” is moving slowly, guided—officially—by the principle of “willing buyer, willing seller.” However, that is not satisfying the desires of the general population.
While Braam was being interviewed on his occupied farm, a carload of men arrived on the scene. Braam halted the car and asked the driver what he was doing on his land. The driver replied, “Driving.”
Braam told the driver, “This is my land, and I am taking President Mbeki to court to get it back from you people.” The driver responded, “Good. We hope they lock him up. We don’t want Mbeki here, we want Mugabe. Mbeki doesn’t give his people land, so we have to take it. Mugabe gives the people land” (Farmer’s Weekly, op. cit.).
This comment provides a clue as to the extent of the problem. The general attitude among many blacks in South Africa is, unfortunately, too sympathetic with some of the aims of the ruling Zanu-PF party in Zimbabwe. If the black citizens of South Africa decide to seize farms ne amsse, as has happened in Zimbabwe, would they have to worry about governmental intervention? Though President Mbeki says yes, his inaction concerning Zimbabwe thus far would indicate otherwise.
Economic Reform
The communist Congress of South African Trade Unions (cosatu) held a conference August 6, 2002, at which its general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, spoke of the “democratic” communist progress in obtaining power from the white minority, but complained that, nevertheless, “That democratic breakthrough did not change the reality that our economy remains under the control and domination of the white minority. …
“The democratic movement and the working class in particular has not achieved hegemony over the society. The state bureaucracy, the security services, media, consultants, judiciary and universities remain largely untransformed.”
Cosatu shares the same agenda as the anc/sacp: to eradicate white involvement from all aspects of the South African economy. This portends radical change in South African society and the ultimate destruction of the influence of a hated, white, colonialist past.
Zimbabwe in South Africa
Although there have been rumors of a white backlash, opposition to the anc/sacp is fractured and divided. Any future attempt by the whites to rescue South Africa from a Mugabe-type “reform” program will prove too little, too late. South Africa’s course is set.
Anciently, God promised Abraham the choicest places on Earth for his descendants. Following the original settlement of Southern Africa by the Dutch, French and German pioneers, God gifted South Africa to Britain in fulfillment of His promise to Ephraim (Gen. 48:19; request your free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy).
Following the imposition of the apartheid policy in 1948, South Africa increasingly became the outcast of the international community, with many countries enacting trade sanctions against it. Ultimately, the white dominated government handed the country over to the majority black anc/sacp alliance. A steady erosion of the South African economy followed. This coincided with a dramatic decline in standards of morality. The ex-colonial leadership of South Africa had largely forgotten the God who had gifted the treasures of this great land to them. This is not a politically correct nor is it a fashionable view of the prevailing situation in South Africa. Nevertheless, it is the prophetic reality! Considering the South Africans’ rejection of God, we can only predict further trouble ahead for the white minority and devastation upon the land as the traditional farmers of generations are swept aside in the developing land grabs.
The removal of South Africa’s blessings should serve as a warning for its old benefactor, Britain, and the rest of the world! Just as the “nations of the earth” once benefitted from the blessings upon Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 26:4), so are they now being adversely affected by the removal of those blessings. As the rebellion of Abraham’s descendants continues, God’s corrective curses will increase upon them (Deut. 28:15, 43-44).
There can, however, be a positive personal outcome to this bleak situation for those who will humble themselves before God and turn to Him in deep, sincere repentance, as events in Southern Africa continue forward on their foreboding course. “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you” (Prov. 1:23).
