Black, white South Africans must meet half way

It is a quintessentially South African tragedy: black on one side, white on the other, separated by a gulf of misunderstanding, mistrust and hate. And all on a piece of land to which both groups have an emotional attachment.

No longer is the white farmer “baas”. No longer are black people subservient. Words fly back and forth and anger escalates. There are threats. A gun is drawn and shots are fired. And a man lies dead.

On a farm in KwaZulu-Natal over the weekend, the racial tensions behind land burst into the open when a 42-year-old black mourner at a funeral was gunned down, allegedly by the farmer on whose land the ceremony was being held.

The funeral goers all had links to the farm: their families had worked there and their relatives were buried there. The farmer allegedly wanted them off his land because they were making noise.

The law on funerals on farm land is somewhat murky, but what it does say – via the Extension of Tenure Security Act of 1997 and its amendment in 2002 – is that people who have been long-term occupiers of land (even as farm workers), must be permitted by the land owner to carry out their burial rituals.

It is also true that many white farmers have been reluctant to allow this, believing that this makes their land vulnerable to a land claim. However, this belief is misguided because, say experts, the cut-off dates for both restitution and labour tenant claims have passed. Whatever the merits of the court case, this tragedy is a stark reminder that we sit on a powder keg in this country when it comes to the land issue.

We need to acknowledge that and we need to start meeting each other half way, because the alternative is truly too ghastly to contemplate.

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