Zimbabwe has President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and South Africa has President, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa and we are all full of hope.

Zimbabwe has President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and South Africa has President, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa and we are all full of hope.
 
Both have made speeches littered with exactly what we have come to expect from politicians, once they garner power … lots of wonderful promises … very short on specifics.
After the last World War Germany was in a mess … a big mess. They did not indulge in rhetoric. They devised a plan … the Marshall Plan. It had specificity … not just promises.
The rest is history.
We need specificity. We need a plan that is innovative, imaginative, bold and tailored to our needs. And because we are in such a mess, and we are badly impacted by terrible history, the plan needs to be somewhat ruthless.
 
So here I am setting out what should be included as non-negotiable.
1. LAND IS KEY. Everything starts with land. It is the base on which wealth, poverty and social justice/injustice all spring from.
2. CURRENTLY THERE ARE NO SOCIAL JUSTICE ELEMENTS AS REGARDS LAND OWNERSHIP.
3. NO CITIZEN SHOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR LAND on which his/her home is situate. There is no moral, philosophical or logical reason why a citizen should be denied land for his/her home. The nonsense starts right here … with this denial.
So it is easy enough to stipulate the acreage needed for a home and this should accrue to every citizen as a “God-given” right.
4. A LIMIT MUST BE PLACED ON THE AMOUNT OF LAND that any one person can own directly or indirectly.
5. A TAX BREAK SHOULD ACCRUE TO AN OWNER OF PRODUCTIVE LAND.
6. UNPRODUCTIVE LAND SHOULD BE TAXED on and ever-increasing scale so as to have the effect of inducing the owner to sell or forfeit.
That way the stage will be reached where we do not have speculative land ownership, land hunger and capricious driving up of the cost of land.
7. SMALL SCAE FARMING MUST BE ACCORDED HIGHEST PRIORITY as this ensures MORE citizens secure a satisfying life style and income. A human that is earning on his/her own land does not feel poor, even if not rich.
8. ALL FARMERS MUST BE CERTIFICATED … and a program for such certification must be devised.
9. PREFERENCE AS REGARDS ALLOCATING LAND FOR COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE MUST BE GIVEN TO APPROPRIATELY QUALIFIED GRATUATES.
10. TECHNICAL RESOURCES MUST BE COMMITTED to ensure the viability of all farming and livestock rearing ventures.
Rhodesia was very successful because government itself addressed the issue of anti-erosion contouring on all land and also provided free technical assistance and very affordable development loan schemes.
For instance the Rhodesian government would arrive on your land, make an assessment and provide full assistance as regards ideal development.
11. A PROPORTION OF ALL PRODUCE SOLD IN HYPER AND SUPER MARKETS MUST BE PURCHASED FROM SMALL SCALE FARMERS.
 
THE OUTCOMES OF THE ABOVE PLAN WILL BE
a) ridding our country of one of the debilitating aspects of rapacious and capricious capitalism.
b) a steady but sure reduction in the current situation of selfish and speculative land ownership resulting in land hunger and arbitrary escalation of the cost of what is actually a fundamental human right.
c) more citizens participating and benefiting from the land of their birth.
d) more “wealth creation” units occurring on an ever increasing scale with a steady upsurge in the Gross Domestic Product.
e) the dissipation of land hunger and the steady entrenchment of SOCIAL JUSTICE.
f) As regards the taxing of unproductive land please see — https://coginito.blogspot.co.za/2017/12/land-sensible-solution.html
 
How the poverty trap is created.
a) a relative few own the land.
b) they then exploit this by sitting on it thus creating land hunger.
c) this leads to land becoming more scarce which only they can afford to buy … and they buy more.
d) they further exploit this in terms of commercial “development” schemes resulting in rental properties.
e) the rentals are set at exploitative levels … always near the threshold of unaffordability.
f) businesses have “no option” but to pass the cost on to consumers.
g) prices only rise … and the land owners just get richer and richer.
h) in this situation there is no chance of ordinary folk ever benefiting meaningfully and they remain in the poverty trap … in the land of their birth. Chris Greenland

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