You’ve probably heard about Black First Land First (BFLF) and their leader Andile Mngxitama before.

Andile was expelled from the EFF in April 2015, since forming BFLF and championing the mantle of land redistribution in South Africa.

Say what you will about the cause (if you don’t recognise that some form of land redistribution is necessary we can’t help you), but they certainly seem to benefit from the legions of bots that make up South Africa’s #PaidTwitter (HERE).

Anyway on to their latest media release, dubbed the Soweto Declaration, which comes with some pretty intense wording.

The basics up front:

We, the landless people who are the rightful owners of this country, its wealth and the land – here today, in Soweto (at Mofolo Park) declare the following:

1. South Africa belongs to black people!
2. White people came here in 1652 and stole our land and made us their slaves.
3. The land and its wealth, everything underground, the oceans and the sky belong to black people.
4. All our sufferings, our poverty, the violence in the townships, in the squatter camps, and in our rural villages are caused fundamentally by the fact that we remain a landless people.
5. Without land there is no freedom or dignity.
6. All the land in the hands of white people is stolen property.

We note with anger that:

1. After twenty three years of democracy, only 35 000 white families own 80% of the land!
2. Blacks own only 3% of the JSE!

Sidebar – let’s chat about that 3% of the JSE statement. Below via BizNews:

…black South Africans control economic and fiscal policy; they control the state’s 35% share of the economy; they own the 10% represented by the informal sector, and according to the JSE they own a higher percentage of the stock market than whites. Whites still control and own a disproportionate – but diminishing – share.

I guess that doesn’t fit in nicely with the narrative the Guptas BFLF wants to push.

We’re going to move onto the demands, which includes these:

“Land expropriation without compensation” must be made policy before the end of 2017!

A law must be made that clearly states that any white person found guilty of murdering or harming a black person must go to jail after which that person must lose his/her property and be deported to Europe!

When it comes to taking the land back, things really escalate:

When land was taken from us, there was no law, no parliament, no talks of two third majority – the whites just took our land through force. We have to regain our land by any means necessary!

…Every town and village must identify white owned productive land, and prepare to occupy it!

It is the land that gives us life and when we die, it’s the land that takes care of our bodies. Without land we are nothing! With land we are everything! That is why we must be black first through getting the land first!

Today here in Soweto we declare that for these commitments we shall fight side by side as comrades, sisters and brothers, as one united black people, until we get back the land!

Take back the land! Land or Death!

Yoh, strong words to finish.

Land redistribution is something that South Africa needs to address, of that there is no doubt, but BFLF has long been accused of ulterior motives.

From the Gupta-Bell Pottinger story back in April:

The company [Bell Pottinger] either helped set up or funded two organisations, the Decolonisation Foundation and Andile Mngxitama’s Black First, Land First, that were critical of the Treasury and “white monopoly capital”; and

The company is behind the creation of Twitter bots – automated Twitter handles that churn out tweets, hashtags and links to or tweets purporting to be by organisations, and news websites – dedicated to exposing the menace of “white monopoly capital” and its alleged influence on South Africa’s finance ministry.

Doing the cause no favours, Andile, although I’m sure you have a lovely nest egg stored over in Dubai. Maybe even some land.

Now you just need the JZ visa.

[sources:bflf&biznews]