Sello Zuma had been observing with contempt the man the press dubbed ‘The smartest man on Earth’. A white man. He wanted to see in person the white man who dared humiliate Trevor Plato, a black South African icon, the pride of post-apartheid South Africa.
At age 30, Zuma was the most controversial and feared political figure of the ANC. A man with barely an education, he had risen to prominence with hate speeches and a vociferous support for a South Africa without whites that appealed to the millions of disillusioned poor blacks living in townships. His popularity had further soared after he had defended the right of black-controlled radio stations to air the apartheid-era song ‘Shoot the Boer’ which had been interpreted by his followers as a call to kill Afrikaners. When accused by journalists of having incited racial hatred and being the cause of the recent surges in the attacks on white farmers, he responded, “All I have to say is this. Listen good, boers and rooineks. Leave my country. You’re not welcome here. We’re never gonna buy your land. We’re just gonna take it because it is our land. We’re gonna do to you what Robert Mugabe did to the whites in Zimbabwe.”
Zuma turned to one of his assistant-bodyguards. “Did you get their names?”
The assistant nodded.
– “What about the woman?”
– “Charlize de Vries. Her parents have a farm north of Pretoria. Hopeland. More than 6,000 acres with around 60 black farmworkers. 180 if you count the wives and children.”
– “They all live on the farm?”
– “Yeah. In outdoor buildings and huts half a mile away from the main residence.”
Zuma looked pensive. “Had there been any attacks on their farm?”
– “A few failed tentatives by losers from slums around Pretoria. Nothing serious.”
– “What about the main residence, who live there?”
– “The owners and the overseer. All Afrikaners.”
Zuma smiled, baring his teeth. “Call Thembani. Tell him I need to talk to him.”
Thembani was the son of South Africa’s Land Reform Minister, Madoba Nkwinti. Post-apartheid South Africa Land Reform was designed to rectify the racially skewed pattern of land ownership inherited from apartheid. Since the first democratic elections, the aim of redistributing 30 percent of white-owned farmland to landless blacks had failed on many levels. The policy was marred by corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency. Lands were handed out to political cronies who did not know how to farm. Once-productive lands lay fallow in their hands. Recipients of the white-owned farmland ranged from Minister Such, to Wife of Minister Such, Secretary of Minister Such, Girlfriend of Minister Such and Secretary of Wife of Minister Such.
Thembani, being the Land Reform Minister’s son, had seizure and eviction forms already signed to his name. All he had to do was to add the farm’s name and Zuma knew of one. Hopeland.
