A former US President, Barack Obama, has disagreed with the new leadership in South Africa for voting to expropriate White farmlands without paying any compensation.
In a statement released at the weekend from his private office in Washington, the former US President said he supports the position of the Congressional Black Caucus, CBC, on the matter. The CBC, which is the umbrella body binding all elected African-Americans serving in the US Congress, had condemned the decision of the ruling ANC in South Africa to seize farmlands belonging to Whites in that country without compensation.
The CBC had issued a statement last Friday urging President Cyril Ramaphosa not to toe such a line, which it called, the path that ousted Zimbabwean dictator followed, to his own peril. While the CBC based its objection to the impending policy in South Africa on political ideology, ex-President Obama based his own stance on morality and constitutionalism.
The statement from the former President’s office said, “Mr. Obama is disheartened by the type of tit-for-tat politics taking place in South Africa. The constitution is meant to guide elected officials especially in sensitive areas where the pursuit of the common good weighs over and above personal sentiments.”
Mr. Obama also appealed for tolerance and argued that the fight against discrimination should not be reversed. In his words, “If for any reason, the generality of the people feel that White farms which were acquired under apartheid should be seized, the owners deserve to be compensated in line with the constitution. All South Africans – Blacks and Whites – have every right to look forward to justice and fairness. In Mr. Obama’s view, “if every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking White class and the Black majority, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves”.
This boils down to the axiom – an option that may look expedient to pursue, may not be morally right, in the end. Well, it is hoped that Julius Malema and the group of Marxists in the ANC are listening.
