An innovative project makes inroads into the land issue

Author: Allister Sparks

IN A WEEK in which African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and leaders of farmers’ associations were balling fists at each other over the endless issue of land redistribution, I visited a farm in the Free State that a close friend bought recently.

It was an interesting experience in a number of ways. First, because my friend is an Indian, a matter of note in itself.

Here I was with an Indian who had just bought a farm in the Free State. Imagine that — an Indian Vrystater, and a boer nogal. Jislaaik!

Nor was it just an anonymous Indian. My friend is Jay Naidoo, founding general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the man who introduced the Reconstruction and Development Programme while a member of Nelson Mandela’s first Cabinet.

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