Make prisoners work the land

I am a layman and totally agree with the sentiments of Mrs Govender (“The country needs all its farmers,” Courier, March 20).
Why evict the productive farmers when Government owns millions of hectares of land which lie fallow? Why can this land not be used as a tradeoff? This will be a win-win situation, the Indian farmers can continue with their honest work and the land claimants can get their land.
My granddad came to South Africa in 1896 on “SS Amzinto” and tilled the land for half a century – not for himself but for a white company. After all this time he went back to his village in South India and built a temple on the family land there. He came back to South Africa and his bones lie on a farm on the North Coast, where all Indian labourers and their deceased were buried. If one were to stumble on these unmarked graves one might mistakenly call it a mass grave. It is no such thing; the company had allocated the land for that purpose.
Coming to this millions of hectares of unused land, why can Government not establish penal colonies? Instead of hardened criminals enjoying themselves at the taxpayers’ expense, they can be put out in leg chains and be made to work the land. Society as a whole will benefit in so many ways.
K PADAYACHEE
Tongaat