Letters From White South Africa Thursday. PART 8 OF "OPENING PANDORAS APARTHEID BOX": By Mike Smith The Lies About the Homelands A common myth or lie about Apartheid is that the whites stole the land from the blacks and shoved them on 13% of the land of South Africa in what was called Homelands. It is further believed that blacks barely scratched out a living in these homelands due to it being on barren soil or arid regions. It is further claimed that whites made sure there were no minerals on these lands before giving to the blacks. It is time to address these lies. Traditionally South Africa belongs to the whites who first permanently settled South Africa since 1652. Blacks entered South Africa at about the same time, but never permanently settled any area, because they were nomadic cattle and goat herders. Blacks only started settling areas permanently after about 1770. Wherever the Boers or Voortrekkers went they bargained for land with local Blacks who settled certain areas before them. In fact there is hardly any part of South Africa that was conquered by whites from blacks. Piet Retief’s treaty with the Zulu King, Dingaan still exist to this day. Blacks settled other areas than the whites and in those areas blacks have the right or claim on those areas. It is however difficult to determine their claims, because blacks had no written language, no maps and no legislation such as land title deeds. Despite this, whites researched the areas that Blacks traditionally settled and gave them full autonomy to rule themselves, with their own police forces and armies trained in South Africa with white taxpayer money. To create work, white business people were encouraged to open factories in these countries with huge tax concessions. The ten homelands were as follows: Transkei –Xhosa Ciskei – Xhosa Venda – Venda Bophuthatswana – Tswana Gazankulu – Tsonga/Shangaan KaNgwane – Swazi KwaNdebele – Ndebele KwaZulu – Zulu Lebowa – Pedi (Northern Sotho) QwaQwa – Sotho Note how some blacks got TWO or even THREE countries of their own. The Xhosas got both Ciskei and Transkei. The Tswanas who have their own country called Botswana, also got Bophuthatswana. The Sothos who already had Lesotho as their own country also got Lebowa and QwaQwa. The Swazis who already had their own country Swaziland got KaNgwane. After South Africa became a union in 1910, the territories (British protectorates) of Bechuanaland (Botswana), Basutuland (Lesotho) and Swaziland was excluded from the union, but the plan was to incorporate them later. The successive South African governments always tried to enclude them, but the British played delay tactics and after South Africa withdrew from the commonwealth in 1961 it ended any prospect of incorporation of these territories into South Africa. Botswana got its independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho in 1966 and Swaziland in 1968. If one considers that these countries are actually part of the original South Africa, then the territories under Black rule and autonomy including the other homelands makes up 50% of the total land and not 13%. One further has to remember that about 70% of the current South Africa is uninhabitable simply because it is too mountainous or it is half desert in the Western part. Only about 10% is under normal climate conditions economically viable farmland. When one considers the rainfall map of South Africa and the areas settled by Blacks, then one sees that Blacks settled in above average rainfall areas. The soil of these homelands was some of the most fertile soil of South Africa. Today the black ANC government is taking white owned farms away and handing them over to blacks to be totally ruined in a few months. Something else a lot of people do not know is that the White NP government ALSO forced whites off their land by paying them out undervalued sums for their farms so that they could hand it over to blacks in the establishment of the homelands. I personally know people who lost their successful dairy farm in those days to make way for the Ciskei. About 48% of all the viable agricultural land was in these Black homelands. Today the Blacks want to say that these lands are barren. As I have mentioned it is totally false, but on the other hand, these were the areas the blacks chose out for themselves to settle on about 200 years ago. They cannot blame the whites for it today. It is often said that whites first made sure that there were no minerals in these homelands before they gave it to the Blacks. This is also false. In the homeland of Bophuhatswana, the Tswana homeland in addition to having their own country Botswana, we can find the largest Platinum deposits in the entire subcontinent. Gold are also mined as a byproduct in these platinum mines. In the “Book Verrat an Südafrika” Klaus Vaque mentions an article in the German Magazine “Deutschland-Magazin” Nr. 3/83 where a Lebowa chief was asked if it was true that blacks have been pushed onto worthless desolate areas... I freely translate, the chief answered: “No, it is not true. We have here all the raw materials except diamonds and crude oil. We have all other minerals. As far as agriculture is concerned, we have some of the richest parts of South Africa. We have good rainfall and good soil. I think our livestock are some of the best and our wheat and maize potential is fairly high. The people who say that we have been pushed onto dry and desolate areas do not know what they are talking about. I think they are talking about others.” The question has to be asked...what is so bad about giving all the major Black tribes of South Africa their own country where they could rule themselves on territory they historically settled and where they could be ethnically homogenous, where they could speak their own language, practice their own culture and religion and where they could be totally free? What is the crime in that?
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 11:30:10 +0000
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