EFF, BLF turning up the heat over land spells trouble

Given that the ANC has already decided land expropriation without compensation is going ahead – and that parliament has already set the wheels in motion – the goal of land restitution and redress would appear to be in sight for black people.

So why is it that the heat is getting turned up by the radical elements in our body politic: the EFF and the BLF?

Perhaps they – and their supporters – are impatient. That would be understandable, because the ANC has done very little in the past quarter of a century to tackle the thorny issue of land.

More likely, though, is that both the EFF and the BLF need to make a huge fuss about land and its associated bogeyman, white racism, if they are to remain relevant to the extent they can ever challenge the ANC in an electoral fight.

The BLF is, we believe, an idiotic, racist, idiosyncratic rabble, which will never be a major factor in South African politics. The EFF, on the other hand, is something else. Its leaders have a political astuteness and talent for tapping into centuries-old grievances – along with a mercenary ability to shack up with anyone ideologically or commercially to bankroll them, which makes them a significant, and long-term, political player.

The problem is that the ANC – a party founded on non-racialism – appears to be allowing the radicals to make the running, especially when it comes to race-baiting.

One would hate to think that this is because many in the current ANC share some of those racist, radical views … So it is much easier to believe the ANC’s own internal stresses are muting those who would speak out in the way Mandela would, had he still been alive.

But none of this bodes well for the future of our country.

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