JONATHAN JANSEN: Dear white people - a good dose of humility would help you engage in the land debate
If this simple fact about dispossession eludes you, then stop reading this article; no amount of education will help you.
Therefore, in the heat of the land reform debate, do not make silly arguments like “my parents worked hard for their land” (everybody does, if they have land) or “I was not there personally” (you benefitted and are better off as a result) or “we bought the land lawfully” (because others could not given those same laws then).
Dear white brothers and sisters I love you but we need to talk about the land issue. In the past few weeks I have spoken at different kinds of events — book fairs, corporate lunches and community workshops — and noticed incredible stress, tension and anger on the part of white citizens. The same thing happens on my social media pages; incredible rage. Most of all I noticed that white friends and strangers had no idea about how to talk about land reform without getting angry (which kind of short-circuits any capacity for reason) and making silly arguments. So I wanted to offer a few suggestions about how to respond to the demands for taking your land, as you see it.First of all, you might not have noticed but South African politics has become really good at slogans like “white monopoly capital” or “decolonisation” or “radical economic transformation”. Like all political slogans, there is an element of truth in these words wielded in public but mostly they are intended for purposes of...
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