First, land reform is not about dispossessing one ethnic group in order to give to another but about ensuring equitable distribution of an important resource to all the present inhabitants of the region. Perhaps Mulder's vision is still blinkered by apartheid mentality which sought to preserve all privilege only for pure whites.

Second, the Bantu never practised segregation and readily integrated with existing inhabitants of the land such that a large portion of people called Bantu today are a mixture of the original Bantu and the San and Khoisan.

In contrast, whites did not even allow their own offspring, the coloureds, to be integrated into their midst. In fact they grouped their offspring together with the Bantu and other non-whites in a system that was designed to preserve and allocate privilege to so-called pure whites.

Third, the current system where 5% of the population own 90% of the resources is unsustainable, regardless of the racial composition of the "classes".

Class disparity has always been a recipe for violent revolution. Perhaps Mulder should familiarise himself with the French and Bolshevik revolutions and subsequently inform us what relevance race played in those.

Fourth, the current unfair disparities were brought about by plain evil - violent, abusive and oppressive racial discrimination. Therefore it is impossible to avoid race when talking about correcting them.

The reason why land has to be redistributed is not because they are whites but because the racist, apartheid system took violently from all others and gave only to them.

The race issue was created by apartheid and its architects, not by those who are trying to correct its effects.

Can Mulder carefully go back to his history books and tell us what apartheid system the Bantu implemented when they migrated to the region.

Fifth, both the Bantu and non-Bantu were victims of racism. Perhaps Mulder needs to be reminded of the fate of the Nama (non-Bantu) and Herero (Bantu) peoples under Lothar von Trotha's onslaught for him to see that racism targeted all non-whites.

Therefore it is totally incorrect to characterise land reform only in terms of the Bantu taking from whites.

Sixth, the current land reform effort is not expressly for the benefit of the Bantu but for all victim groups. All victims of racism are supposed to benefit. The fact that the majority have Bantu blood is irrelevant. Even the Chinese are considered disadvantaged.