Land reform in Freedom Charter
Achieving the strategic objective of land reform is a complex task with serious obstacles, yet it is at the heart of what we want to achieve as a nation.
Before tying ourselves to the constitutional framework, we need to understand and unpack the ideological vision enunciated in the Freedom Charter.
Land is not and never will be narrowly confined to agriculture. But the Freedom Charter perspective on it is narrower than that of the constitution. The Freedom Charter does not use the word “distribution”. The constitution promotes security of tenure as well as land reform and redistribution.
One reason to critically engage with this notion of land expropriation without compensation is that the Land Bank has serious financial governance and accounting problems, such that one is left asking what is going to happen to the commercial bank loans given to white farmers?
The practice of granting soft agricultural commercial loans long predates the current political dispensation.
The Freedom Charter needs contextual interpretation when we say "the people shall benefit in the country's wealth". Could that be a preface to “sharing the land among those who work it”?
Could we assume that sharing the land refers to sharing the proceeds that accrue after the land has been worked?
— Bongani Bizzah Zita, via e-mail
Water meter mystery
I would have loved to cc my councillor, Dereck Green, in this letter, but I've lost his email address.
Since May 2020, when I lost my job, my son has been paying our water account according to the actual meter readings (accompanied by photographs of the readings) every month. Not a single statement has been adjusted accordingly.
What's worse, BCM has not only adjusted the water tariffs but the brackets for consumption have been arbitrarily changed in order to inflate my account so that the incorrect reading reflects on the highest rate.
If this isn't theft then I don't know what it is. And to do this when the world is devastated by the financial impact of Covid-19. I expect BCM may try to explain it as "a system error" but that won't fly with me. Although I am not currently paying this account myself, I am an honest person who pays for what I use.
Please don't assume I am so easily duped into paying for thumbsucked accounts.
Celeste Lackay, via e-mail
LETTERS | Water meter mystery
Image: iStock
Land reform in Freedom Charter
Achieving the strategic objective of land reform is a complex task with serious obstacles, yet it is at the heart of what we want to achieve as a nation.
Before tying ourselves to the constitutional framework, we need to understand and unpack the ideological vision enunciated in the Freedom Charter.
Land is not and never will be narrowly confined to agriculture. But the Freedom Charter perspective on it is narrower than that of the constitution. The Freedom Charter does not use the word “distribution”. The constitution promotes security of tenure as well as land reform and redistribution.
One reason to critically engage with this notion of land expropriation without compensation is that the Land Bank has serious financial governance and accounting problems, such that one is left asking what is going to happen to the commercial bank loans given to white farmers?
The practice of granting soft agricultural commercial loans long predates the current political dispensation.
The Freedom Charter needs contextual interpretation when we say "the people shall benefit in the country's wealth". Could that be a preface to “sharing the land among those who work it”?
Could we assume that sharing the land refers to sharing the proceeds that accrue after the land has been worked?
— Bongani Bizzah Zita, via e-mail
Water meter mystery
I would have loved to cc my councillor, Dereck Green, in this letter, but I've lost his email address.
Since May 2020, when I lost my job, my son has been paying our water account according to the actual meter readings (accompanied by photographs of the readings) every month. Not a single statement has been adjusted accordingly.
What's worse, BCM has not only adjusted the water tariffs but the brackets for consumption have been arbitrarily changed in order to inflate my account so that the incorrect reading reflects on the highest rate.
If this isn't theft then I don't know what it is. And to do this when the world is devastated by the financial impact of Covid-19. I expect BCM may try to explain it as "a system error" but that won't fly with me. Although I am not currently paying this account myself, I am an honest person who pays for what I use.
Please don't assume I am so easily duped into paying for thumbsucked accounts.
Celeste Lackay, via e-mail
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