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Political correctness demands that we should conform to government’s demand that 30% of all farming land should be in the hands of black farmers by 2015 (now 2025), regardless of food or water security. Organised agriculture has committed itself to achieve this goal. But should government bind ­itself to policies that rely on racial discrimination?

As Mr Wong said to his wife when she wanted to adopt a white baby: “Two Wongs can never make a White!” This question of advantaging people of colour as the only yardstick must eventually bite government in the bum.

According to the Freedom Charter South Africa belongs to all who live in it (regardless of race) and should enjoy the fruits of their labour and enterprise. Instead of a racial yardstick, the ‘disadvantaged’ should rather be given a more gradual leg up in practical ways with partnerships, mentorships or apprenticeships. This would require time but would be better than to set them up for failure.

All this sounds very idealistic, but if past behaviour is a predictor of future behaviour, South Africa is in for a shock. By its own admission, some 90% of government’s past land reform projects have failed, vast sums of money are still owed or have been poured down the drain and the present land reform budget is still totally inadequate to realise its ideals.

Since land reform has seldom been a roaring success elsewhere in the world, a little more commonsense should prevail. The problem is that we are not pursuing a policy that will enable aspirant farmers of all races to access land and government support to make a positive contribution towards food security and rural development. No, our policy is based solely on the colour of a man’s skin.

Now, we all know that all history has always had a bias. What is worse, even in a country such as ours, with a model constitution and the miracle of a peaceful transition, we now have a revisionist type of history, that may or may not contain a great deal of propaganda, dwelling on past or imagined hurts and ills.

Often, the revisionist history takes no account of the past historical or social environment, the economic pressures or mores of the time. It tends to hide current failures or excesses under the cloak of propaganda or the blame game. White South Africa paid a terrible price for trying to advantage first the English and then the Afrikaners. Now we need to get things into perspective as we try to advantage people only on the basis of colour.

No nation is perfect and we come from a pretty shady past where a lot of terrible things have happened to many innocent people, but these are facts we cannot change. Whites were advantaged not merely because they had the power but also because of their pioneering initiative. Blacks were at a disadvantage by Western norms but had (and still have) the numbers to resist the invader.

No one ever tells how our country acquired its present infrastructure or sophisticated state of development. In the end, the country made steady progress in spite of its love-hate relationship. In future, there will be many more qualified blacks than whites for available posts or land.

But, until we reach that level of efficiency, let us use anyone with experience or qualifications, regardless of colour, to make South Africa a better place. Why do we squander the patent advantages we have of a sympathetic white minority with skills and a huge fund of knowledge to share with their black compatriots? Together, we can achieve miracles like an earth-shattering FIFA World Cup. Why mess it up with poorly devised ideologically driven land reform? Why turn our well-intentioned land reform officials into weary, disillusioned puppets of ideologists sitting in Pretoria?

I would favour getting rid of bureaucracy and turning land reform over to the farmers’ associations and agricultural unions, in consultation with black aspirants. They are most keenly aware of the need for rural development and viability. Give them the necessary government assistance and help so that their vast fund of accumulated knowledge can devise and inspire enthusiasm for far better local solutions than Pretoria might prescribe. One size does not fit all.

This is already happening in the dairy industry and could be further encouraged with calf-raising projects for black children, based on a successful model for young aspirant farmers in the United States. Kotie Annandale, a retired dairy farmer from Qwaqwa, has also shown the country what can be done when you help beginner dairy farmers to market their milk along lines already proven in India and Kenya. He assists individuals to double their income by raising the average milk production of a handful of cows.

Instead of making enemies of farmers, minister Joemat-Pettersson needs to work more closely with the farming industry. Let us admit the mistakes of the past and put new life into our department of agriculture so that it may serve the needs of the na­tion and our emergent black or white farmers.