Land-grab calls expose South Africa's broken promises

By Ed Cropley

NELLMAPIUS South Africa (Reuters) - To the squatters marking it up this week with sticks, rocks and strips of plastic, 'Malema Valley' is a little slice of South Africa they want to call home.

To many others, including the government, the derelict land on Pretoria's outskirts handed out by supporters of opposition firebrand Julius Malema is the thin end of a land-grab wedge that could ultimately derail Africa's most advanced economy.

Few South Africans have forgotten the economic catastrophe that unfolded in neighbouring Zimbabwe from 2000 when liberation war veterans - with initial acquiescence and then encouragement from President Robert Mugabe - invaded white-owned farms.

For the moment, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is holding the line, sending riot police to clear the land, owned by Pretoria city council, and dismantle the shacks springing up on makeshift 12m x 12m plots.

"This is no-man's land. There's nothing here and people need a place to live. We've done nothing wrong," said unemployed 26-year-old Nelson Poeletso, rolling a yellow police rubber bullet between his thumb and forefinger.

The tough stance could be politically costly for the ANC, which overthrew decades of white-minority rule 20 years ago with promises to provide a 'better life for all', backed by a constitution that enshrines the right to 'adequate housing'.

The reaction to Wednesday's removal of hundreds of would-be shack-dwellers was a riot, with residents of the township of Nellmapius, 20 km (12 miles) east of Pretoria, burning tyres in the street and looting the house of the local ANC councillor.

Egged on by activists from Malema's ultra-leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who said they had 7,000 people signed up for 'Malema Valley' housing plots, and with a strong sense of moral entitlement, the shack-dwellers vowed to return.   Continued...