re: South Africa seizing land from white people

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Wait until the Chinese start dominating Africa. They'll be begging for white folks to come back and help them.

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They might, but the Chinese government has increased investment in SA by a large amount. I think South Africa is only behind Nigeria in terms of Chinese investment. After the ANC declared they wanted to model development after the Chinese model in 2015, the Chinese offered them a $60 billion aid package. Given the level of investment, the Chinese will have a some say in what happens with land expropriation, as this resolution has only passed the lower house, and still has to pass the upper house before section 25 (the portion of the constitution that deals with property rights) can be amended.

This article gives a good view of the situation. LINK

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While there is consensus that the land reform programme is not performing well, the figures it purports to draw from the land audit – 'black people own less than 2% of rural land, and less that 7% of urban land' ('black' refers to African) – are incorrect.

These numbers refer only to registered and titled properties held by individual owners. The audit was unable to assign racial identity to around two thirds of the country's land. This was held by companies and trusts, and a large portion belonged to the state or was 'state trust land'.

Much state land is in fact land in the former homelands, or land acquired for 'beneficiaries', but whose title has not been transferred to them. Current land redistribution policy is to retain state ownership of land and to lease it to tenants. Small wonder that 'black' ownership of land remains modest.

AgriSA's study of the country's farmland suggested a more positive picture. It argued against a focus on hectarage as a measure of success, and suggested agricultural potential as a better one. It found that some 46% of agricultural potential – land with fertile soil and good water sources, for example, mostly in the eastern parts of the country – were in the hands of government and historically disadvantaged individuals.

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