If you are a big fan of South African history, you probably already know that land is a contentious issue there, from South Africa itself to Zimbabwe, much of it tied to the expanse of land owned by whites from the apartheid era which they still hold to this day.
In Zimbabwe, the “experiment” by Robert Mugabe to take land from white farmers and give the same to blacks was a catastrophic failure which led to famine and drought. But that is the Zimbabwean experience.
While such an experiment has yet to be implemented in South Africa, the advocacy to implement that is pretty strong among some circles. This advocacy gained some resonance recently with impeached judge John Hlophe calling for the expropriation of land back to black people.
The impeached former Western Cape judge was speaking at the launch of the African Legal Professionals Association at Blue Waters Hotel in Durban when he addressed the subject of land ownership, pointing out that the land belongs to blacks and should be returned to them.
Whether he would eventually succeed in his advocacy of land expropriation is unclear, but he has the backing of some of his compatriots in the Rainbow Nation.
