By Peter Bailey
For Two Jews in SA, “Black Land Ownership Matters”
The dreaded Apartheid regime may have ‘gone with the wind’ but there is a relic from that era that remains and is reminiscent in the words of Margaret Mitchell’s immortal classic Gone With The Wind:
“The land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s the only thing that lasts”.
Several organisations claim to be activists encouraging and working for Black land ownership, but as the saying goes, talk is cheap, but the ones who get their hands dirty get the job done. Khaya Lam, (“My Home”), is an organisation that gets the job done, as far as black land ownership is concerned. Its aim is to convert all municipal council owned property on which residents have built their own houses as well as Apartheid era rental houses, into freehold and freely tradable properties with title deeds. With the help of sponsors, title deeds are being issued to the registered occupants, many of whom have lived in these houses for decades under a form of “house arrest”. Ownership of millions of these council rental houses is currently held by the municipalities. What is not surprising is to find that Free Market Foundation EXCO member, Perry Feldman, a Parys resident, project manager and a founder of Khaya Lam, is Jewish, given the exceptional philanthropic record of South African Jewry.
Cry For Support
Perry laments the fact that while South African Jewry have a proud record in actively participating in, and in many cases, establishing organisations to assist the disenfranchised during the previous political dispensation, there is very little Jewish-based support for Khaya Lam.
Possibly, because too few may know about it!
So far, there has been substantial financial support for Khaya Lam from many other white South African individuals, as well as white controlled corporates, as well as several Black sponsors, including the Mayor of Ngwathe.
It’s a project that should naturally attract South African Jewry if one examines the record of the Jewish community in providing funding, assistance, and support to the disenfranchised and disadvantaged during the Apartheid era. The one organisation that does seem to be the beneficiary of substantial Jewish support – monetary and otherwise – is 
. This organisation was founded in 1995 by Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris and philanthropist Bertie Lubner, who provided the initial funding. While both Harris and Lubner have passed on, this NGO, now run my Marc Lubner, still attracts support from many Jewish owned corporates and private Jewish philanthropists
Jewish Activism
Activist fighter in the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the late Arthur Goldreich (2nd left) at the formally secret ‘Beit Berl Programme’ in Israel to prepare South African Blacks for future leadership positions.
Many members of the white community joined the liberation movements, but Jews, as a percentage, far exceeded any religious or other groups in joining or actively assisting the liberation movements. In an article by Ant Katz in the South African Jewish Report dated 18 November 2013, he quotes 1956 Treason Trialist, Ben Turok, as saying that 14 of the 23 white trialists were Jewish, just over 60%, at a time when Jews constituted between 2.5% and 3% of the white population. During the police raid on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia on 11 July 1963, 11 people, 6 black, including Nelson Mandela, 1 Indian and 5 whites, of whom 4 were Jewish, were arrested. During the period from 1960 until the advent of a Democratic South Africa, countless numbers of South African Jews participated in the struggle, many of them – notably Arthur Goldreich – joining Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress. Mandela credited Goldreich’s contribution to the ANC armed campaign from the knowledge he had gained from volunteering in Israel’s War of Independence (1948-1949).
Although there were many Jewish Parliamentarians during the years of Nationalist rule from 1948 until the first democratic election in 1994, one name stands out, that of Helen Suzman. She was first elected to Parliament as a member of the United Party in 1953, later joining eleven other more liberal members of the party in a breakaway which resulted in the formation of the Progressive Party. She was the only member of the party returned to Parliament in the 1961 election, remaining the sole liberal voice in Parliament until 1974, when five other liberal Members of Parliament were finally elected.
Making An Impact
One of the seldom aired problems of land ownership in South Africa, is that of the approximately 7 million Black township homeowners who have built their own homes on land that was leased to them by the municipal councils during 
the Apartheid era, many as far back as 60 years ago. The Free Market Foundation became aware of this major problem where people, many often using their meagre savings, were building houses and improving property on land that they did not own. A study group was set up to examine the situation and prepare a project to rectify this problem. Perry Feldman appeared on the scene at this stage and matching his contacts in the Ngwathe Local Municipality together with the action plan of the study group, it was agreed that Ngwathe would be the pilot project to obtain title for people who had built their homes on land that they did not own. While the Ngwathe Municipality approved measures to reduce red tape to a minimum, the biggest problem facing the team was the cost of title deed registration, which was beyond the means of most residents. Funds were collected from various sources and Khaya Lam is proud to say that within a relatively short period, 1420 Ngwathe homeowners have become the registered title holders to the land on which their houses stand, with another 300 registrations in the pipeline. The cost of each registration is R2100 which means that more than R3 million was needed to process these title deed registrations.
The Free Market Foundation has calculated that for every R100,000 spent on property registration, R5 million in capital is generated for low income South Africans by having title to their homes. This was previously “dead” capital of no benefit to anybody. Title on property allows homeowners to access loan funds for:
– education
– home improvements
– business startups
It also clarifies any doubt about the inheritance of such properties.
Title has given every new title-holder the security and dignity that white South Africans have always taken for granted.
Road to Recognition
Khaya Lam’s innovative project to facilitate land ownership has been recognised with an award by the Impumelelo Trust which is funded by the Eric and Sheila Samson Foundation and Distell. The Trust, which was run by longtime activist Rhoda Kadalie (recently retired) is about social innovations – changing society in a way that is “unique, sustainable and replicable”, a description that is a perfect fit with the Kaya Lam mission. The success achieved in obtaining title for Black homeowners in Ngwathe has led to the project being expanded nationally to places as far afield as Graaff-Reinet, Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Grabouw and Hluhluwe in KZN. The fact remains that success for the project is dependent on public funding to cover the transfer and other costs involved in title deed registration.
Plea for Funding
What Perry Feldman and Terry Markman, a fellow Jew and a Director of the Free Market Foundation would like to see is a greater involvement by South African Jewry and Jewish controlled corporates. This in turn will assist in providing funding for the Khaya Lam project to achieve all its objectives.
The challenge is therefor for South Africa’s 21st century Jewish Community to live up to the proud record established by their forebears in funding communal projects to assist the disadvantaged during the 20th century.
