[DEBATE] : Fwd: comrade Jan (Andile Mngxitama)

[Sean Jacobs]

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> Comment & Analysis
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> Hands off comrade Jan, son of the soil
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> Andile Mngxitama: COMMENT
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> 04 December 2007 11:59
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> I was shocked ? shocked! -- to read that comrade Jan Serfontein, 
> recently appointed North West minister for agriculture, conservation 
> and environment, has been accused of being a farmer who closes off 
> water for poor blacks.
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> I have known comrade Jan since I was young, having attended his farm 
> school outside Potchefstroom for part of my primary schooling. My 
> family of farm workers lived at Haagner?s farm, which is next to 
> Serfontein?s successful farm. I remember him as the cruel farmer who 
> once chased me with a knobkerrie because I refused to call him baas. I 
> must have been about 13 then.
>
> So I was very surprised when former president Nelson Mandela accepted 
> Jan as an ANC member of Parliament because, up until then, I knew 
> Serfontein as a trigger-happy farmer who shot at black youths who had 
> dared to steal his fat chickens. If you stole from him, he hunted you 
> down and shot you, that?s what everybody told us then. He was  
> seriously feared, racist, swore a lot in Setswana and was liberal with 
> the k-word.
>
> But people change, don?t they? Jan Serfontein was a known member of 
> the AWB, but he joined the ANC, embraced non-racialism and 
> reconciliation. This is the miracle of our rainbow nation of God. 
> After the second democratic election he was deployed back to the North 
> West where he distinguished himself as a selfless servant of the 
> people. He recruited farmers around Potchefstroom to join the ANC. As 
> members of the movement they could evict farm dwellers without fear!
>
> In recognition of comrade Jan?s commitment to democracy and 
> transformation, he was promoted to the position of chairperson for the 
> provincial portfolio committee on agriculture and land affairs, and 
> subsequently promoted to provincial minister. Jan is now a seasoned 
> cadre of the ANC who was prominent during the presidential imbizo in 
> Potchefstroom earlier this year.
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> Why cast aspersions  on such a splendid fighter for the democratic 
> revolution now? Yes, he may have closed water off for poor blacks in 
> Boskop, and closed a school to turn it into a chicken coop, but where 
> is the contradiction there? Why drag his good name into the mud like 
> this now? Is it because of Polokwane?
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> The opportunism of those who accuse comrade Jan must be exposed. I 
> shall say nothing about the ongoing fear among his farm workers. I 
> tried to give one a lift to his house last year, but the frightened 
> worker begged me resolutely not to do this for the safety of both of 
> us. I was puzzled until, reading my confusion, the farm worker told me 
> that comrade Jan does harm to trespassers.
>
> Comrade Jan?s enemies claim that there are continued human rights 
> abuses on his farm, emanating from the noble hands of this son of the 
> soil. The enemies of the ANC have short memories indeed. Comrade Jan 
> apparently donates generously to the coffers of the movement and  even 
> holds braais for the leadership. He needs the ANC and the ANC needs 
> him. It?s a win-win situation really, just like Madiba and FW de 
> Klerk.
>
> Among comrade Jan?s recruits to the ANC were the Haagner?s farmers, 
> who were assisted by comrade Jan and the Potchefstroom local council 
> to evict more than 100 families from their farm with the help of the 
> office of then premier comrade Popo Molefe. It was a democratic 
> eviction.
>
> This act clearly demonstrated the truth that the ANC is a broad 
> church, where the interests of all are served, and where farmers and 
> farm workers can live in harmony, so long as they each know their 
> respective places. Most of the Haagner?s evictees are now squatters in 
> the outskirts of Ikageng township in Potchefstroom, where they live a 
> very tough life, but their eviction was carried out in the interests 
> of democracy and non-racialism, and I?m sure that they, as good 
> citizens, understand.
>
> I just wanted  to set the record straight.
>
> Andile Mngxitama, who was born and raised in Potchefstroom, now lives 
> in Johannesburg
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