Dear Mr Branson,
My name is Andile Mngxitama. I am the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF’s) commissar for land and agrarian revolution. Our movement got 1.1-million votes in the recently held elections in South Africa and will be represented in Parliament, with the real prospect of becoming the government in our lifetime.
I write to alert you to an illegal activity you may unwittingly have been part of. Our media reports that you have just bought yourself a 40 hectare wine farm in Franschhoek.
Sir, you have bought stolen property. The consequence of your witting or unwitting participation in this illegal transaction is that the EFF policy of land expropriation without compensation may, in the near future, affect your investment adversely.
It behooves me to warn you now so that you do not plead ignorance on the day of historical redress, which may not be too far off.
You may not know, sir, the history of land dispossession in our country, which renders all land stolen property. Basically, there are two idioms that govern the land dispute in our country. The dominant idiom since 1652 is that of the settler, who imposed it upon the native majority through force of arms. The result of this conquest is that, about 350 years later, the native majority is landless and only about 40 000 white families own up to 80% of our land.
To make this settler idiom clearer, let me give you an analogy. Basically, it’s as though I came to your house with a marauding armed gang and forced you and your family out of your house into the coldness of the streets. Then, I wrote a piece of paper, called it a title deed and put my name on it; this paper I sent to the gang headquarters as evidence of my ownership of your house.
The title deed you have is a piece of paper written by the original land thieves to give them illegal dominion over property that doesn’t belong to them. The title deed here, sir, is a pathetic attempt by the land usurper to legalise an act of illegality.
Now this settler idiom competes with the native idiom, which holds that “ityala aliboli molato ha o bole”. If I may attempt a translation, I would say it means that an act of evil doesn’t erode with the passing of time. In short, a debt doesn’t rot. So, from our perspective as natives, it doesn’t matter how many times the stolen land changes hands – it remains stolen property.
I also need to bring to your attention a historical fact you may not be aware of. The African people who occupied the land you have bought were the Khoi and the San.
The land thieves, after dispossessing them of their land, found themselves in a dilemma: they were stricken by guilt. So, to make this problem go away, they committed even a bigger crime. They undertook a genocide against the legitimate landowners. They literally disappeared the landowners so that the crime of land theft could be erased. This genocide has not been accounted for, nor have reparations been paid. You will be surprised to know that no acknowledgement of the crime has been made.
As you can see, sir, we are a nation with deep problems – all of them linked to the original land theft. I do not write these words lightly. I recognise the difficulty this may cause you and the inconvenience it invites. But I’m sure you will agree that there is something fundamentally wrong when stolen goods are sold in full view of the legitimate owners.
Our pain defies words. The descendants of the original landowners have been reduced to slaves. You may not know this but farmworkers who work those vineyards earn as little as R1 500 a month. That’s a mere $145. This is a legislated form of slavery by our democratic government.
The EFF has called for a R5 000 minimum wage for farmworkers. It’s not much but would go a long way towards improving the conditions of our people on these lands.
I believe I have brought the most important information to your attention. What you do with it is really between you and your God. Those buying land in our country can no longer plead ignorance. Now you can’t say you didn’t know.
Yours sincerely,
Commissar Andile Mngxitama
Sir Richard Branson’s Response to the EFF Franschoek Land Expropriation “Threat”
Posted by Micampus1 On June 22, 2014 0 Comment
"Stolen" Land or 15 years leased land.
Dear Honorable (Commissar) Andile Mngxitama
Thank you for your letter warning me about expropriation without compensation of my Mont Rochelle Hotel and Mountain Vineyards owned by Virgin Limited Edition (VLI) in Franschoek. That is if the EFF come to power.
I do want to firstly assure you that we are used to expropriation without compensation. It is commonplace in the hotel business and I can’t tell you how many sheets and towels and pictures cutlery and plants go missing from our establishments.
One hotel owner lost a whole chandelier when a guest dismantled and smuggled it out in his brief case; in batches. Our only crime-free establishment is on my island Nakar, where the guests probably think they might be searched on departure.
May I also hasten to add that we do not own that surreally beautiful forty hectares of land in Franschoek. At least not in the same way that we own the business, cars, equipment, vines and buildings. But I give you my word that all these movables are ours and will be disposed of before the expropriation date, using explosives if needs be.
As for the very precious and beautiful land, the Registrar of Deeds, a state employee, has acknowledged our ownership by signing the title deed and survey diagram. This ‘piece of paper’ as you call it, is vital. We cannott have people trespassing on our property, or sending their cows into the vineyards. So we paid for its exclusive use. The tacit agreement is the state will prevent others from using it and our taxes pay for this protection.
I might add that when the colonial forces subjugated your ancestors I believe there was much debate in Whitehall about introducing land titles into the former Homelands. Suffice to say that if they had done so then, as the Fingoes requested in 1835, people would not now still be fleeing from land held in communal ownership and arbitrary rule by chieftans.
In testament to this we can only guess how thoroughly rotten things are out there, sans titles, when people freely choose to move to the dangerous and degrading rusty corrugated suburbs around the towns and cities. There they have to buy food and are humiliated by depending on state grants which would not feed an alsation. “Oh to be a slave,” they must be thinking, contrary to your suggestion.
However untitled land was what the Cape settlers had to cope with in the 1820s. So Governor Craddock, acting on Queen Victoria’s behalf, marked out private farms and plots and issued title deeds. In those days colonialists were granted perpetual quitrent tenures which Queen Victoria was bound to honour, for ever, provided the owners paid the rent.
To describe this as stealing from the Khoi and the San is about as ridiculous as Queen Elizabeth 11 accusing Azanians for pinching the English language, taking on Westminster’s democratic norms, and and playing cricket, football and rugby. The point is that the land is still there. So how can it have been stolen.
Yes, VLE has a title deed, and yes settlers took posession by force just as the Normans took England in 1066, and the Zulus took parts of the Transkei and like property has been engrossed everywhere since BC. But in my book we do not own the Franschoek land but merely have a right to its use. A usufruct as Baroness Thatcher called it. That might be because my God, as you call Him, made this beautiful land but His name does not appear on the title deed.
And land is priceless; for in this unfathomable universe all the money in the world cannot add an inch or an ounce to our earth. And, I blush, VLE paid just fifteen years of rent for the farm (the going multiple), when it will last till the end of time, probably a billion years.
That is a bargain in any language. You call it theft, but we have not deprived anyone else. Frost and Sullivan estimates there are 27 million hectares of unused arable land in South Africa and countless millions of urban plots which could be subdivided, so there is enough to go around.
But income taxes and vat are proper, armed robbery. And when the EFF comes to power you will be fleecing everyone for working, innovating, saving, investing and spending in South Africa. Just like the ANC today.
So let us do a deal and get all this land access and theft business out of the way in the event that you win the next election:
1. Without admitting any guilt I am willing to recommend to my board that VLI pay back the current value of our land to the National Treasury over a fifteen year period with an option to continue paying for its use thereafter.
2. The conditions precedent are that all other landowners, whether black or white, are put to the same terms. Secondly National Treasury waives all income taxes and vat, starting from the February following the date that EFF comes to power.
You will find the land payments will likely exceed the present taxes because unused land, pays next to nothing now. This will mean that the price of unused land will drop sharply and will therefore cost next to nothing to expropriate. Or it will have to be put to use quickly to make the payments.
Kindly reply within the month because we have started renovations to the hotel. That may have to be stopped if your threat is not withdrawn.
Yours Sincerely
Sir Richard Branson
My name is Andile Mngxitama. I am the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF’s) commissar for land and agrarian revolution. Our movement got 1.1-million votes in the recently held elections in South Africa and will be represented in Parliament, with the real prospect of becoming the government in our lifetime.
I write to alert you to an illegal activity you may unwittingly have been part of. Our media reports that you have just bought yourself a 40 hectare wine farm in Franschhoek.
Sir, you have bought stolen property. The consequence of your witting or unwitting participation in this illegal transaction is that the EFF policy of land expropriation without compensation may, in the near future, affect your investment adversely.
It behooves me to warn you now so that you do not plead ignorance on the day of historical redress, which may not be too far off.
You may not know, sir, the history of land dispossession in our country, which renders all land stolen property. Basically, there are two idioms that govern the land dispute in our country. The dominant idiom since 1652 is that of the settler, who imposed it upon the native majority through force of arms. The result of this conquest is that, about 350 years later, the native majority is landless and only about 40 000 white families own up to 80% of our land.
To make this settler idiom clearer, let me give you an analogy. Basically, it’s as though I came to your house with a marauding armed gang and forced you and your family out of your house into the coldness of the streets. Then, I wrote a piece of paper, called it a title deed and put my name on it; this paper I sent to the gang headquarters as evidence of my ownership of your house.
The title deed you have is a piece of paper written by the original land thieves to give them illegal dominion over property that doesn’t belong to them. The title deed here, sir, is a pathetic attempt by the land usurper to legalise an act of illegality.
Now this settler idiom competes with the native idiom, which holds that “ityala aliboli molato ha o bole”. If I may attempt a translation, I would say it means that an act of evil doesn’t erode with the passing of time. In short, a debt doesn’t rot. So, from our perspective as natives, it doesn’t matter how many times the stolen land changes hands – it remains stolen property.
I also need to bring to your attention a historical fact you may not be aware of. The African people who occupied the land you have bought were the Khoi and the San.
The land thieves, after dispossessing them of their land, found themselves in a dilemma: they were stricken by guilt. So, to make this problem go away, they committed even a bigger crime. They undertook a genocide against the legitimate landowners. They literally disappeared the landowners so that the crime of land theft could be erased. This genocide has not been accounted for, nor have reparations been paid. You will be surprised to know that no acknowledgement of the crime has been made.
As you can see, sir, we are a nation with deep problems – all of them linked to the original land theft. I do not write these words lightly. I recognise the difficulty this may cause you and the inconvenience it invites. But I’m sure you will agree that there is something fundamentally wrong when stolen goods are sold in full view of the legitimate owners.
Our pain defies words. The descendants of the original landowners have been reduced to slaves. You may not know this but farmworkers who work those vineyards earn as little as R1 500 a month. That’s a mere $145. This is a legislated form of slavery by our democratic government.
The EFF has called for a R5 000 minimum wage for farmworkers. It’s not much but would go a long way towards improving the conditions of our people on these lands.
I believe I have brought the most important information to your attention. What you do with it is really between you and your God. Those buying land in our country can no longer plead ignorance. Now you can’t say you didn’t know.
Yours sincerely,
Commissar Andile Mngxitama
Sir Richard Branson’s Response to the EFF Franschoek Land Expropriation “Threat”
Posted by Micampus1 On June 22, 2014 0 Comment
"Stolen" Land or 15 years leased land.
Dear Honorable (Commissar) Andile Mngxitama
Thank you for your letter warning me about expropriation without compensation of my Mont Rochelle Hotel and Mountain Vineyards owned by Virgin Limited Edition (VLI) in Franschoek. That is if the EFF come to power.
I do want to firstly assure you that we are used to expropriation without compensation. It is commonplace in the hotel business and I can’t tell you how many sheets and towels and pictures cutlery and plants go missing from our establishments.
One hotel owner lost a whole chandelier when a guest dismantled and smuggled it out in his brief case; in batches. Our only crime-free establishment is on my island Nakar, where the guests probably think they might be searched on departure.
May I also hasten to add that we do not own that surreally beautiful forty hectares of land in Franschoek. At least not in the same way that we own the business, cars, equipment, vines and buildings. But I give you my word that all these movables are ours and will be disposed of before the expropriation date, using explosives if needs be.
As for the very precious and beautiful land, the Registrar of Deeds, a state employee, has acknowledged our ownership by signing the title deed and survey diagram. This ‘piece of paper’ as you call it, is vital. We cannott have people trespassing on our property, or sending their cows into the vineyards. So we paid for its exclusive use. The tacit agreement is the state will prevent others from using it and our taxes pay for this protection.
I might add that when the colonial forces subjugated your ancestors I believe there was much debate in Whitehall about introducing land titles into the former Homelands. Suffice to say that if they had done so then, as the Fingoes requested in 1835, people would not now still be fleeing from land held in communal ownership and arbitrary rule by chieftans.
In testament to this we can only guess how thoroughly rotten things are out there, sans titles, when people freely choose to move to the dangerous and degrading rusty corrugated suburbs around the towns and cities. There they have to buy food and are humiliated by depending on state grants which would not feed an alsation. “Oh to be a slave,” they must be thinking, contrary to your suggestion.
However untitled land was what the Cape settlers had to cope with in the 1820s. So Governor Craddock, acting on Queen Victoria’s behalf, marked out private farms and plots and issued title deeds. In those days colonialists were granted perpetual quitrent tenures which Queen Victoria was bound to honour, for ever, provided the owners paid the rent.
To describe this as stealing from the Khoi and the San is about as ridiculous as Queen Elizabeth 11 accusing Azanians for pinching the English language, taking on Westminster’s democratic norms, and and playing cricket, football and rugby. The point is that the land is still there. So how can it have been stolen.
Yes, VLE has a title deed, and yes settlers took posession by force just as the Normans took England in 1066, and the Zulus took parts of the Transkei and like property has been engrossed everywhere since BC. But in my book we do not own the Franschoek land but merely have a right to its use. A usufruct as Baroness Thatcher called it. That might be because my God, as you call Him, made this beautiful land but His name does not appear on the title deed.
And land is priceless; for in this unfathomable universe all the money in the world cannot add an inch or an ounce to our earth. And, I blush, VLE paid just fifteen years of rent for the farm (the going multiple), when it will last till the end of time, probably a billion years.
That is a bargain in any language. You call it theft, but we have not deprived anyone else. Frost and Sullivan estimates there are 27 million hectares of unused arable land in South Africa and countless millions of urban plots which could be subdivided, so there is enough to go around.
But income taxes and vat are proper, armed robbery. And when the EFF comes to power you will be fleecing everyone for working, innovating, saving, investing and spending in South Africa. Just like the ANC today.
So let us do a deal and get all this land access and theft business out of the way in the event that you win the next election:
1. Without admitting any guilt I am willing to recommend to my board that VLI pay back the current value of our land to the National Treasury over a fifteen year period with an option to continue paying for its use thereafter.
2. The conditions precedent are that all other landowners, whether black or white, are put to the same terms. Secondly National Treasury waives all income taxes and vat, starting from the February following the date that EFF comes to power.
You will find the land payments will likely exceed the present taxes because unused land, pays next to nothing now. This will mean that the price of unused land will drop sharply and will therefore cost next to nothing to expropriate. Or it will have to be put to use quickly to make the payments.
Kindly reply within the month because we have started renovations to the hotel. That may have to be stopped if your threat is not withdrawn.
Yours Sincerely
Sir Richard Branson
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