* Racial tensions stirred by land debate
* Analysts see land issue as a threat to democracy
* Economics make it tough for beneficiaries
By Olivia Kumwenda and Jon Herskovitz
SENEKAL, South Africa, April 24 (Reuters) – South Africa’s
plans to undo the wrongs of apartheid by returning land seized
from native blacks is embodied in the life of Koos Mthimkhulu.
He was born on a white-owned farm in 1955 and attended a
school set up by white farmers to give him just enough education
for a life as field hand. A short childhood gave way to decades
of milking cows, driving tractors and ploughing fields for
poverty-level wages.
When white-minority rule ended in 1994, the new democratic
government made it a priority to return land to those
dispossessed. It wrote the idea into the constitution and made a
plan that would make people like Mthimkhulu independent farmers.
Yet the practice under the African National Congress (ANC)
has fallen far short of targets and disappointment is stocking
up new risks of social, racial and economic crisis to threaten
the very democracy intended to save South Africa from disaster.
The post-apartheid government selected Koos Mthimkhulu for a
programme under which it would buy agricultural land from white
farmers and turn parcels over to blacks who had claims on the
territory. It offered him money, advice and moral support.
Continued…
