ANC tells black people that white people are the problem
Political Analyst Prince Mashele said that the way the ANC plays politics is to tell black people that white people are the problem.
“Consequently, this has led white people to believe that black people are the problem. It is a classic divide-and-rule strategy,” he added.
Mashele shared his views about the problems in South Africa during a State of the Nation breakfast event, organised by Mike Sham.
He is well-known as a political scientist, analyst, researcher, and author, and for his sharp, provocative commentary on South African politics.
He has worked at prominent research institutes and think tanks, including the Centre for Politics and Research and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
In his speech at the State of the Nation breakfast, he slated the ANC, saying that the party caused tremendous damage to South Africa.
One of the damaging things the ANC does, he said, is to pit one race against the other as a divide-and-conquer strategy.
“The ANC tells black people that white people are the problem. Consequently, this has led white people to believe that black people are the problem,” he said.
“When things fall apart, white people say it is because of black people. The ANC tells black people that their conditions are worsening because of white people.”
“As a result, everyone is angry. Meanwhile, the ANC thieves continue to loot and destroy our country.”
Mashele argued that the way to stop this is to isolate those spreading messages of division in South Africa.
“We should let the best of our white and black citizens come together and do politics collectively,” he told delegates.
He added that South African political parties are currently largely organised along racial lines.
“Some disguise this, like the Democratic Alliance, claiming that they are a truly representative party,” he said.
“They say that we should not talk about race. However, we must talk about race. South Africa is a country of white, black, Indian, and coloured people.”
“If you cannot talk about race, it means you are too afraid to talk about yourselves. So, let us talk about race.”
Loading ...
Newsday quote- “AfriForum released a new report which shows that white people own 21% of South Africa’s land, well below the regularly quoted 72%. The report, titled “Fact Check: False claims about land ownership in South Africa,” was released at a conference on private property rights. * It stated that inaccurate land ownership statistics are often cited in
South Africa without proper scrutiny. Ernst van Zyl, head of public relations at Afriforum, said one of the
claims is that white South Africans own 72% of the country’s land. This figure is derived from the 2017 Land Audit Report, which refers to agricultural land and smallholdings in South Africa. Van Zyl said that the 2017 Land Audit Report raised questions about
the audit’s accuracy, methodology, and interpretation. “In early 2025, members of Parliament acknowledged that a credible
land audit was necessary to address the untrustworthiness of the existing statistics,” he said. Despite these problems, the 2017 Land Audit’s statistics continue to be cited, which Van Zyl said is misleading and potentially dishonest. “The claim that whites control 72% of the land is disinformation, in the original and true sense of the word,” he said. He added that the government’s data is outdated and inconsistent, failing to properly classify state-owned land, corporate holdings, or traditional communal territories. Furthermore, the report highlighted governance failures within the land reform process, including widespread corruption and high failure rates on redistributed farms. The AfriForum report argued that the 72% white-owned land figure
refers only to individually owned agricultural land and smallholdings. When measured against South Africa’s total land area, white-owned rural land accounts for approximately 21%. The state, not white people, is the largest single landholder,
controlling roughly 23% of the country’s land. It added that a significant portion of South African land cannot be
classified by race due to various ownership structures. Trusts, companies, and community-based organisations comprise nearly
45.9% of land ownership that cannot be racially profiled. That means that only about 30% of South Africa’s total 122 million
hectares can be accurately profiled by race. AfriForum said that 2.8 million hectares administered by the Ingonyama
Trust was classified as state land rather than attributed to a racial category. The Zulu Monarch serves as the sole trustee of the Ingonyama Trust. Classifying it as state land reduces black land control in reporting The report further argued that measuring land in South Africa purely by hectares ignores productive value. Only 26.4% of South Africa’s land is arable. For example, the Northern Cape contains 43% of all individually owned white rural land, yet it has 0% arable land. Another focus of the report was urbanisation in South Africa, which increased from 56% in 1993 to 67% in 2024.Black South Africans own more individual urban land than white people in eight of the nine provinces. The Northern Cape was the only exception. For individual urban land ownership, white people own approximately 26% of the parcels nationally. Share of individually owned rural land cultural land under black ownership Agricultural land under black ownership Individual-owned erven per race Individual-owned erven per race Agricultural land under black ownership Individual-owned erven per race “It is disconcerting that these statistics are used to justify radical land reform policies, including eroding property rights and expropriation without compensation,” it said.