A South African writer for The Saker Blog
Let’s set the social scene with a video from Vesti News:
People are getting accustomed to living this way. The Neo-Chiefs in the Ruling Party do not care for the minorities, and neither do they care for their own. In the final section, we will return to social issues.
Mentioning a second introductory point may be timely for a watch list. If real trouble strikes in the Persian Gulf and with Iran, the route around the Horn of Africa passing South Africa, may become of strategic significance.
The recent May elections.
48 political parties contested the 2019 elections The results were:
– The governing African National Congress (ANC) won its smallest percentage of votes for national office ever, reflecting the worst performance of this party in any national election since 1994. It still won 57.51 percent of the vote.
– The DA (Democratic Alliance) won 20.76 percent.
– The EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) won 10.79 percent.
– The remaining forty-five parties together won 10.94 percent, though most of them did not win enough to earn a seat.
– The ANC won eight of the nine provincial legislatures; the EFF retained its position as Official Opposition in Limpopo and the North West, beating the DA to second place in Mpumalanga.
– The DA obtained a second place in five provinces won by the ANC.
– In KwaZulu-Natal, the Inkatha Freedom Party beat the DA to second place for the first time since 2014 and grew to 3.38% on a national level.
– In the Western Cape, the only province not won by the ANC, the DA declined from 59.38% to 55.45%.
– The ruling ANC slipped to holding 230 parliament seats, while the main opposition DA now holds 84, the EFF holds 44 seats (with some wiggling and jiggling after the elections that changed a few seats but not materially).
To make these results more understandable for the larger world, the ANC is supposed to be the centrists (but they are not, they are the neo-chiefs), the DA is supposed to be the progressives, and the EFF is clearly the challengers and very far left. The small splinter parties represent a spectrum, including the right. https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/316134/south-african-national-election-2019-final-results/
Shortly after the elections and as is customary, Cyril Ramaphosa (now the 2nd richest man in the country) was again elected President and presented his State of the Nation Address that immediately was described as underwhelming. https://www.thebricspost.com/ramaphosas-state-of-the-nation-address-underwhelms/
The Cabinet changes after the State of the Nation address were described with ‘cautious optimism.’ https://www.thebricspost.com/new-south-african-cabinet-welcomed-with-cautious-optimism/
Ramaphosa’s speech reads like a Christmas tree, all kinds of lights flickering, and will last about as long as a Christmas tree. This is simply a grab-bag of wish-list promises. He is going to do just everything! It is a pity that the country’s internal education does not supply the people with the ability to do what Ramaphosa’s says he wants to do. Again, he links everything to land redistribution in his opening paragraph, while the problems in the country are much more serious.
“We gather here at the start of the 6th Democratic Parliament, 106 years to the day after the Natives Land Act – one of the most devastating acts of dispossession, pain and humiliation – came into force. “http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/speeches/state-nation-address-president-cyril-ramaphosa%2C-parliament%2C-cape-town
These neo-chiefs are beginning to sound like they have taken advertising lessons from Holocaust promoters and certainly not taking cognizance of who did what in history. These people that said vile things as depicted in the image on the right, are not in the country any longer; they are long dead and so is apartheid.
In South Africa, where trucks moving goods and food traveling the main North/South Highway (N2) are being pelted with petrol bombs, Ramaphosa wants to build a new smart city, just like in China. He wants to bring in high speed rail, save the world, cut crime only by 50% percent, redistribute land and just about destroy the ability for food production, while, as is discussed under economy, the youth unemployment rate is 50% and the educational standards are exceedingly poor. Smart cities need engineers, software engineers, people who understand math and science and a host of other skills. Needless to say, the skill-set is just not there, and nothing serious is being done to materially educate people, let alone the electricity to support this notion. Listening to the State of the Nation, one can only smack your head against a brick wall and say: “Mr Ramaphosa, I’m very happy that you saw smart cities and fast trains in China. But this is a trailing indicator of a 40+ year program of poverty eradication and education. This program is what you should have looked at and this is what you should dream about first. The Smarts and the Speed will Follow if you create a structural base, and we don’t see any of that! All we see, is a crumbling state and infrastructure.”
The initial election of Cyril Ramaphosa as president was covered for The Saker Blog here.
And even though there was a positive feeling in some parts of the country when Ramphosa was first elected, we will soon see that there is very little positivity left. Even Al Jazeera is listing Ramaphosa’s current problems with sheer graft.
So, let us summarize and highlight:
- As we move from the hard election results and to discussing South Africa and BRICS, we have a Russian news report unashamedly calling the killings of white farmers “Ethnic Cleansing.” This is in the open now.
- And then, from China, we have this from the current Chinese ambassador to South Africa. “Ramaphosa is the “last hope of this country,” Lin Songtian, the Chinese ambassador to South Africa, said in a Reuters interview.”
And the commentary on that:
- “When the leader of a country starts getting, from abroad, compliments and expressions of support against rival factions — especially from a Chinese diplomat schooled to be studiously even-handed in public — it’s a sure indication that they think he is buried in the political crap. ” https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-timidity-of-sas-last-hope
South Africa in BRICS
Note that the previous section commenting on the recent elections contains two links, both from The BRICS post, and in each instance, not very flattering or with high enthusiasm. Is this what we can accept as the real sense from the other BRICS partners toward South Africa? Is South Africa the heavy brick that drags down BRICS? Certain forces seem to think so, as there is internal resistance against Brics – Gangsters and Banksters, the “Break the BRICS Coalition.”
As we do not have a cohesive society in the country, this gets complex. The understanding about BRICS in the country is abysmal. This, interestingly enough, illustrates the ideological schism existent for many years within South Africa where the previous dictatorial white government were aligned with the west during the cold war and in its denouement of anything USSR or Chinese at the time, but the black community saw especially the USSR style communist ideology as their only hope for their future; an important point to remember if one looks at South Africa today. This schism is still alive and appears in the strangest of places, especially if a traditional Marxist tells you how bad Russia and China is. The video below will illustrate.
“On Thursday 26 July 2018 different formations calling themselves “Break the BRICS Coalition” marched to the Sandton Convention Centre, the venue of the 10th BRICS Summit. The march was a protest against what the coalition calls the capitalist nature of the BRICS states, their anti-working class behavior, and their environmentally destructive policies.”
As can be seen from the first part of the video, the leader of this coalition displays a breathtaking ignorance of the real conditions within China and Russia today, and he carries with him old western cold war ideas. The commentary is valuable however, as it illustrates the general state of education of the population, either for or against a non-existent notion of ‘communism’, but in other circles, talking up Marxism.
The overall interesting question is: Where does South Africa really stand in the move towards a multipolar world system? This anti-Brics coalition leader has some good ideas on that, and indeed, the start of the Free Trade African wide agreement is a good idea. In contrast to the first part of the conversation, which is old cold war rhetoric, this part of the interview starts at time marker 11:38.
BRICS Leaders Are Reinforcing, Not Replacing, the Global System of Power
Patrick Bond (August 2018)
In addition to the internal pushback against BRICS, there is almost symmetrical pushback against what is called the 4th Industrial Revolution. Frequently companies cannot modernize, as modern equipment is broken by workers, set on fire and otherwise tampered with under the slogan “This 4th Industrial Revolution will Take our Jobs.” (Now think of the Ramaphosa promise of a smart city and high speed rail and you will get an idea of how far removed his inauguration speech is from reality on the ground).
What is South Africa’s real role in BRICS? The reality becomes subsumed with all kinds of promises and flowery descriptions. This study gives an overview: https://www.unav.edu/documents/16800098/17755721/DT-01-2019_South-Africa_ENG+%281%29.pdf
From this China Daily report, it seems to hinge around the concept of a ‘gateway to Africa.’ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-09/15/content_13689717.htm
Studying these two documents and others, it seems as if South Africa is just ballast, only present as part of the ‘Global South’ sphere in BRICS, more for the investment opportunities it offers to the other BRICS countries, instead of anything more substantial that the state may provide to the BRICS coalition itself.
One may argue that they are in BRICS to stop them from being in any other alliance.
Nevertheless, this is the formal governmental description, and we will see if it makes sense when we look at the next section on the economy; specifically, the upbeat job creation scenario envisaged in the light of active ‘Staatskaping’ or State Capture.
“Professor Wang Yong, in his 2012 Economic Diplomacy Programme paper titled: South Africa’s role in BRICS and the G20 summed up South Africa’s unique role in BRICS when he wrote: South Africa is in a position to make unique contributions, particularly in terms of development of the BRICS Africa agenda, promoting global economic governance reforms, and institution of the BRICS as a credible international organization”.
“Already, these five BRICS countries account for 40 percent of the world population, and as of this year, their combined nominal GDP amounted to US$18.6 trillion, about 23.2% of the gross world product.
Trade between the five countries has doubled in seven years, ballooning from R203 billion in 2010 to R462 billion last year.
South Africa’s membership of BRICS also gallops towards the realization of the country’s National Development Plan mandate of eliminating poverty and the reduction of inequality by 2030. This is aligned with BRICS’ five pillars of priority.
Investment deals between South Africa and the BRICS partners have reached fever pitch, with China leading the way. Several Chinese billion-dollar firms have headed south in recent times. Among them, mobile and green energy companies such as Hisense, FAW, Beijing Automobile International Corporation, Phalabora Mining Company, China Longyuan Power Group.
A PriceWaterCoopers (PwC) report recently showed that the bilateral trade between Pretoria and New Delhi has grown by 400% between 2004 and 2014. According to the report, the investment deals were in the environmental, financial services, mining, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and information technology sectors.
All this could mean one thing – the much-needed job creation. According to the PwC report, the R50 billion investments came with 18,000 jobs in tow.” https://www.sanews.gov.za/features-south-africa/sa-worthy-member-brics
Let’s move on to the economy and see if we can find those 18,000 jobs.
The Economy is not a bright spot, BRICS, or no BRICS.
We start with a confused ideology. Black Agenda Radio in the US hit it exactly right on most points excepting two. They say:
“South Africa is the only place in the world where the entire Black political class speaks in the language of Marxism-Leninism, even when they are in cahoots with Big Capital.”
The two points:
First – The wealth of the country is no longer centered in white hands and Black Agenda Radio presents as if the EFF are genuine Marxists. They are not. They are instead the quasi-military wing of the ANC itself, and a violent grouping deeply involved in State Capture. They are now seeking a larger role and are disassociating themselves from the ANC, as the ‘real revolutionaries’. Yet even in this disassociation, the ideological lies are clear:
Get rich or lie trying: Why ANC millionaire Julius Malema posed as a radical. https://libcom.org/library/get-rich-or-lie-trying-why-anc-millionaire-julius-malema-posed-radical
Second – While South Africa still claims the 2nd biggest economy in Africa (the 1st being Nigeria and the 3rd being Egypt) finding useful economic data becomes a difficult task. One of the frequently mentioned criticisms on Ramaphosa´s state of the nation speech after the May elections is that there is no vision and no expression of the real feeling on the ground. His speech indeed lacks vision and mission and precisely clear policy, paths to implementation of policy, and innovation to economically bring positive changes in the country. Is it because he is incompetent, or is it because there is no vision because vision is not required for the ruling party as their reality story is quite different from having a vision for a functioning country? I would suggest the latter.
After 25 + years of ‘democracy’ the country boasts:
- a joblessness rate of more than 29% officially – of course, the number on the street is quoted as much higher, (2 out of 3 people not working, so where are those BRICS jobs quoted in the BRICS section?). In addition a youth joblessness rate of 50% +
- A massive crime rate forced by joblessness, hopelessness, and despair.
- A surge in foreign debt,
- fairly open Northern border and a years-long surge-in of more hopeless people from Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
- The power provider (Eskom) is so poorly managed with unmaintained infrastructure that the country regularly is in rolling electricity blackouts. Btw, even the Chinese Ambassador expressed that the problems here are not financial, but management and application of skills. (machine translation https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=af&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.afriforum.co.za%2Fafriforum-eskom-verliese-en-hoer-werkloosheid-wys-ramaphosa-se-planne-werk-nie%2F
- the tax collector SARS has not been able administratively to handle its job and is basically falling apart and imploding. – https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/special-reports/2019-02-21-revenue-collection-dire-cost-of-sarss-implosion/
- Trains, planes, pick your government service and they are all in financial trouble – there is no end of problems, and infrastructure that worked is now coming to the end of its life. Because of no maintenance during these 25 + years, the end is one of implosion.
- Labor strikes are too many to count. You can search for ‘strikes in South Africa 2019′. There are national strikes, local strikes, municipality worker’s strikes, mine workers, port authority, wildcat strikes, university strikes and so on, too many to mention.
- Hospitals are exceedingly badly managed : Go in Alive, Come out a Corpse is the slogan
- The Police service is in crisis with reports that 41% of officers failed their annual shooting test – People are relying on private security, which increases cost of living.
- The problem of ‘staatskaping’ or State Capture of the wealth of the country is still in full swing. The form that State Capture takes is that the ANC owns or attempts to hold all of the wealth of the State, even above State objectives. The ANC with its neo-chiefs, enriches itself first. In the last election, however, this is beginning to unravel, because even ANC members and cadres now feel they are not getting their fair share of the hijacked state economy. Basically, all the might of the state and economic affairs is captured or pirated by the ruling party and run as a private enterprise for itself, and the country is left in rack and ruin. The rulers are redirecting the wealth and economy of the country into their own pockets and into their political party. https://www.sastatecapture.org.za/site/hearings. This is even visible in religious and church affairs, where the President asks for prayers for the ANC, and not for the country. https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2019-04-19-pray-for-us-ramaphosa-invites-the-church-to-be-ancs-watchdog/
Summary : Generally, 25 years+ into so-called democracy, the country is falling apart, but not for the neo-chiefs, who have never partied hardier.
An Experimental Comparison
Let us make a short comparison of what Russia has accomplished since the fall of the Soviet Union 1991, with South Africa’s freedom election in 1994. You may say this is an unfair comparison as Russia is a much bigger country with many more people and massive landmass. Yet, South Africa changed materially in 1994 and has the advantage in such a comparison as the average income in Russia was statistically expressed as 0, and the country was non-functioning, whereas South Africa was a functioning country. Both countries had to deal with the international sphere equally, and Russia was again handicapped with sanctions and having to protect itself militarily. Of the BRICS members, a comparison between South Africa and Russia makes the most sense. This is what it looks like in simple percentage terms:
Consumer Prices in South Africa are 11.36% higher than in Russia
Consumer Prices Including Rent in South Africa are 17.62% higher than in Russia
Rent Prices in South Africa are 39.29% higher than in Russia
Restaurant Prices in South Africa are 4.77% higher than in Russia
Groceries Prices in South Africa are 9.71% higher than in Russia
And a few more:
- South Africa has a 29% official unemployment rate with a 50% youth unemployment rate, and Russia is in the range of 4% yet Russia was a non-functioning country being plundered in 1991 and South Africa a functioning state in 1994.
- Russia is a respected country, and South Africa is floundering.
- Russia does not have laws that exclude a mostly educated workforce from the workplace because of racism.
- South Africa has a relatively young workforce with a median age of 26.3 years whereas we all know about the Russian people’s resistance against pension age changes for its population, which is of an older median age.
- The wealth in South Africa has changed hands, and it is now estimated that 40% of the really rich are black neo-chiefs, so the accusation that the whites hold economic power is slowly eroding.
- South Africa, as a country, has natural resources as has Russia.
Why does the current ANC government still hold the firm belief that making all the whites poor, will enrich the rest of the 55 Million blacks?. On the face of it, it is absurd, as the white minority is slowly going through the process of being impoverished. At this stage, this is nothing more than trumped-up racial revenge to hide the shortcomings of the current management in the country.
Some of the percentage differences between the two countries in a detailed cost of living comparison are quite breathtaking, and is submitted for those with time on their hands. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Russia&country2=South+Africa
Russia clearly has an alive, growing and most importantly well-managed economy and South Africa has an economy teetering on stagnation with most public services imploding or falling apart. Just before Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address, Moody’s made the statement that South Africa’s GDP growth will remain one of the lowest among Baa3-rated sovereigns. The debt burden is expected to rise but a brighter point is that the structure of the debt is resilient to shocks. Of course, the significant debt (as far as can be determined) is to China, and China has structured it to be resilient, very specifically the new loans to prop up South Africa’s power generation company Eskom. China works in a particular way with debt that cannot be serviced – they take over the project and infrastructure that the debt financed and run it themselves, leaving very little opportunity for state capture.
In South Africa, as you heard from Black Agenda Radio and many other studies, the inequality of people’s is the highest in the world. The rulers talk Marxism but practice extractive and exploitative capitalism.
So, high level only, what did Russia do differently from their lowest point as a country, in comparison to the steps that the new South African government took from what was a high point if one believed the Rainbow Nation advertising?
1. Russia got their oligarchs under control. In South Africa, the neo-chiefs are the oligarchs and are running the country. It is stated policy to create a black millionaire and billionaire class and that document was hastily hidden when it was first discovered.
2. Russia invested in technology, education, and food production (with sanctions accelerating and mandating this trajectory and they also needed to spend on defense). In South Africa, they are breaking down technology in protest against the so-called 4th industrial revolution, the education is liberal and weak, and the most significant agenda item is land redistribution without compensation, i.e., stealing. What a way to handle your productive food sector by threatening their lives, while saying BRICS is bringing all these jobs. All these jobs? Well, I don’t see them. South Africa is now an importer of maize and corn, and food imports are steadily increasing.
3. The most significant difference is that Russia invested in their country and their people. In South Africa, the neo-chiefs invested in themselves by capturing state income and economy for their own pockets and ideological political party.
4. Russia had an educated workforce and still to today education lacks in South Africa.
The evening before Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation speech, Moody’s dropped a severe report, warning that the country’s growth rate is in trouble and SA’s inequality of people’s is not just staying put, it’s on the increase. (Of course, it is the fault of the whites – everything is, as everything is the fault of Russia if one believes the western propaganda).
So taking a look at economic factors, what is reported is la-la land-like positive outcomes, interspersed with great speeches with promises of doing better when the la-la scenario does not manifest. The big gap, of course, is between promises for the future and how to actually get there. That piece is generally missing in the economic reporting. It is clear that economically South Africans of all colors and classes are struggling to the point of despair, not because they are not productive and good people, but because the country is managed as a ‘get rich’ piggy bank, focused on creating black millionaires and billionaires. If this makes you flash to the Ukraine in your thinking, you would be exactly right but for South Africa, even Mexico is voting Cape Town as exceedingly dangerous and in South Africa, they are even killing Ukrainians in hiding : http://www.radiofreesouthafrica.com/mexican-council-votes-cape-town-as-africas-most-dangerous-city/
Yet, the black cadres are still plotting and planning revolution : http://www.radiofreesouthafrica.com/we-foresee-a-revolution-militants-in-secret-black-power-drill/
Farm Murders and Land expropriation/re-distribution without compensation.
We have a first bright spot here with the ruling government now forced to acknowledge that farm murders are not common crimes but truly unique. These are very specific atrocities against the white farming and rural population perpetrated not only with extreme violence but exceedingly cruel torture (Kill The Boer). Bear in mind that it is difficult to defend yourself because the laws discriminate against the mainly white farming population and their employees.
63% Of the population is urban, so, that leaves us with around 47% of the people as rural. Farm murders are a type of violence in the background of land redistribution without compensation – it is the fear, torture and killing that is necessary to hide the program of state capture for the program of creating a class of black millionaires and billionaires – farm murders are not just crime, they are a project. These murders and attacks on relatively unprotected people show an increase of 60% over the past decade. One should also remember that volunteer groups kept the initial statistics as you could see from the woman killed in the first video by Vesti News. She was reporting on the murders. The hypocrisy does not even pass a first smell test. The ANC government initially stated clearly that they don’t count crimes on minorities separately from the overall crime rate. It is also generally known practice that even if dead and tortured people lay on the ground, the crime is classified as ‘burglary gone wrong’ or something similar. Yet, the rulers seem to count exactly how much land is in the hands of those minorities in a clear stance of egregious double standards. This is besides the fact that they got the numbers wrong by orders of magnitude as well.
Machine translation : https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=af&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmaroelamedia.co.za%2Fnuus%2Fsa-nuus%2Fplaasaanvalle-styg-afgelope-dekade-met-60%2F
The ANC heads of Noordwes and Gauteng have admitted that farm murders must now be given attention to as priority crime.
The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ms Thoko Didiza, has spoken out strongly against Farm Murders as well as illegal land grabs. Her deputy stated that the 1.4 million hectares of land that the state owns, will be re-distributed first and the tone of this statement is less racially biased.
Machine Translation: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=af&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmaroelamedia.co.za%2Fnuus%2Fsa-nuus%2Fminister-veroordeel-plaasmoorde%2F
During July, Ramaphosa himself condemned farm murders, but with so much negative rhetoric stated toward the ones continually exposing the murders and torturous crimes, that his negative rhetoric virtually canceled his condemnation. Nobody believed the man. He has no principles, as you heard again from Black Agenda Radio regarding the Marikana massacres. Where there was some hope expressed after Ramaphosa was elected and I reported on that small hope here, that hope is also now gone.
With the relative loss of votes by the ANC, the visibility of unfair discrimination (workplace and crime rates) to educated minorities, the visibility of state capture, and the concomitant reduction of tourism and investment, the la-la land economic reporting, the service sectors of the state imploding, the balance of power is slowly beginning to change and the ANC might see the beginning of their loss of power. BRICS will not save them.
Then, the second bright spot : The internal knowledge base is slowly beginning to change as well, and reporting such as the following is becoming more common.
New world order looms amid US trade war with China, but SA seems clueless
“… the US does not want the locus of global power to shift from the West to the East. This is precisely what the trade war between China and the US is about. But where does SA stand in all this? Unfortunately, there is no evidence that either our intellectually bland president or our tired international relations minister has a clue. “ https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2019-06-24-new-world-order-looms-amid-us-trade-war-with-china-but-sa-seems-clueless/
It is hard to find bright spots in this downward trajectory of a once flourishing country, but these two, condemning farm murders and an assurance that land will be distributed from state coffers first, as well as some internationally savvy reporting, are indeed welcome. This won’t stop the process of changing the constitution to make land-grabs legal.
What can we say about the future?
Well, it looks bleak. This looks like a country on the way to being a failed state and on a similar trajectory as the Ukraine, only with neo-chiefs as oligarchs. We can only hope that the contact with Russia, China and other BRICS countries changes the level of education, knowledge and sheer intelligence to stop this slide. At least in terms of India there is a lot of interaction, with Indian channels available on the local television networks. This slow decline could continue until there is nothing left to loot and end up in a type of Mogadishu, with increasingly violent strikes, open violent faction fighting and a very poor country with exceedingly wealthy neo-chiefs.
It is a sad state of affairs overall, as South Africa can do much much better. Given government support for those that produce food in country, this sector can be repaired as the know-how is there (if somebody overcomes the fact the many white folks have the know-how). At this stage we have to say .. Get Over Apartheid Already!
We can also look at South Africa pragmatically, as the African Empire in the previous age, which is failing and falling. So many lessons can be learned while we are all watching the current world Empire, failing and falling.
What would be really wise is to send a delegation to Venezuela to go and investigate and learn how to take a previously western centered capitalist country, to a socialist managed country and to end the State Capture.
To end the formal part of this depressing analysis, it would be best if the country is handed to China for day to day management, and the neo-chiefs maintain their positions only as ceremonial leaders to ‘learn on the job’ so to speak. At least China would have the smarts to put the 50% + unemployed youth into re-education camps and teach them math, science, language and a skill-set. Then, and only then would Ramaphosa’s dream of a smart city and fast rail have a hope.
History – when does it end?
I wrote this part as an ending because the situation is so bleak. I wanted to find something, anything positive.
If you do not know South Africa or Africa, structurally there may be no method in your head to consider these issues. It is a strange place with a unique set of circumstances and a very unique people. To try and judge this country by what you know of other countries, will probably not be appropriate. If you have not been accused of being “the child of rapists, colonists and plunderers” by a stranger in an airplane, you are not the strange creature that is African, but white and there is only about 5 or 6 million of my kind on the earth.
One must also remember that anything that goes wrong is still blamed on the 5 Million whites and not on the 55 Million blacks. The general accusation against migrants is that migrants do not assimilate or integrate. I, and other similar creatures like me, have done the unthinkable. We assimilated and integrated, built a country and became part of the African Soul. Our feet are still profoundly stuck into the soil of South Africa, and I still cry when I hear the voice of Miriam Makeba. This video contains a short history of Miriam and a very haunting and beautiful love song.
If your skin is white in South Africa, some of your ancestors probably committed sins. These were sins of their times like traditional slavery was a sin of its time.
When does history end? What does a group of people have to do, if their forefathers committed sins? How do they clean their own slate?. Is there an international court that can announce and declare that their debt to society has been paid, and it is enough now, and this South African white minority must be freed from the sins of the ancestors? The laws that mostly prohibit these people to take part in the workplace must now be abolished. The weird race-based laws that virtually prevent any white South African from freely running a business must now be abolished. The slow killing of these people must now stop.
Each time I say these things, there is a chorus of ‘How Bad the Whites Were,’ where no attention is paid to the efforts made by this population to redress the wrongs of their forefathers. And indeed, we can question whether these were wrongs, or whether these were actions taken within the context of the times. I’ve said this before and will repeat it … there was never a conscious ‘killing of black tribes’ akin to the American slaughter of the indigenous Indians; the Trail of Tears, or outright gunning for the indigenous in bloodthirsty horse mounted regiments. There has never been conscious exploitation of South African black folks equal to the British toward the Indians where the Indians were forced to abandon their own food production and grow indigo specifically for the Crown, resulting in hunger for the local population. Where do you all think the ubiquitous blue jeans of the 60’s/70’s free love revolution came from? The cloth was made and dyed and sewed in India under British rule; the jeans were sent to Germany for adding shiny studs – remember Levy-Strauss? Well, the Indians made those, excepting the studs, and we in the west wore those jeans, as a proud emblem of our free love revolution, without knowing that those that dyed the cloth, were under a British slavery system.
But enough of that. Let’s take a more positive look when we all still hoped for the Nelson Mandela rainbow nation. The music was good and is still good, the wine is superb and the current wild flower season breathtaking.
A famous and idiosyncratic South African musician, David Kramer penned these lyrics, in a song to the world:
“You’ve got da money but we’ve got da beat! Everybody born here Mister got the rhythm in their feet!”
This is unique music and old now, but perhaps the equivalent of US country music, yet a very unique west-coast storytelling style. This is happy music, and crying in your beer music and foot-stomping music that everybody knows and everybody enjoys.
This is what South Africans thought they had voted for, when the ANC took over the country and the rainbow nation and Truth and Reconciliation was a word on everyone’s lips.
This is what we got:
Miriam Makeba eventually returned to her homeland after many years in exile, after suppression by both the Americans and the local South African government, and everyone else following. The US wanted to nail the Russians and the Chinese, and South Africa suffered and what has changed?
It is time that this strange creature, an African that is White, could return, without fear of Kill the Boer, because we did the unthinkable, we assimilated and integrated. The blame game toward the whites is slowly unraveling. I don’t have a clue what the Dutch do or what the French do, because we assimilated and created a country. We should be lauded for that, and our skills should be used freely to create a new version of this country.
A moment of silence for Johnny Clegg, who united through music.
Johnny Clegg, Anti-Apartheid Musician in South Africa, Dead at 66
We are the scatterlings of Africa
And finally, for those that always ask me What About Da Joos?
Da Joos still own much of the mining, now only sharing with black leadership. They do what they do in other countries, and of course many have left South Africa, so, they manage their holdings from afar, well integrated with the neo-chiefs. Those that are still there, still protest BDS and work for Israeli causes. But the Jews were inherently racist and the word ‘schwartzes’ was used frequently, so, the ordinary rank and file to a large measure left the country.
Additional reading
Black on White crime – An American perspective … https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2019/07/27/the-brutal-reality-of-black-on-white-crime/
The nature of farm murders described here
https://sputniknews.com/africa/201907181076286740-south-africa-new-farm-murder/
Paul Craig Roberts with a desperate question …. are whites too stupid to survive
http://www.unz.com/proberts/are-white-people-too-stupid-to-survive/
and Is White Genocide in our Future, where Roberts reports on South Africa
Seeing poor white people makes me happy. This was immediately censored, but it still exists in the internet archive
http://archive.vn/2cRrM#selection-713.0-713.39
Added for interest : Trump’s Vision for Africa: the 1960s
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/07/26/trumps-vision-for-africa-the-1960s/
History Reading
AmaBhulu (which means Afrikaners)
https://www.amazon.com/AmaBhulu-Birth-Death-Second-America/dp/0992159016
In 1797 the British Royal Navy feared South Africa would become a “Second America” for Britain, while, in the 20th century, the country was to Africa what the United States was to the world. AmaBhulu describes the developing crisis in the Second America that will inevitably entangle the First America. It is a study in the death of Civilization by its own collective hand; a severe warning for the West.
AmaBhulu is a view of South Africa through eyes different from those employed in fifty years of media reporting, social science, and politics. The author walks the reader from the 1652 landing of the Dutch to the present by following his own family bloodlines as example through the documented history of the country, supported by copious evidence. As settlers, soldiers, slaves, and indigenes, they farm, they fight, they triumph, and they lose. They are mercilessly impaled and massacred by savage African tyrants. They are hanged and fusilladed by an imperial overlord, and herded into concentration camps. Yet, they persevere to create a key Western Christian country; the envy of all Africa and a Cold War bulwark of the West. Eventually it falls to the author to describe the loss of his country through forces beyond his control.
The country that will take over South Africa and bring it back won’t be China or Russia or the US. It will be the country that funded and supported the ANC through the many decades of struggle and then quietly let the ANC and Nelson Mandela take the credit. It will be this country’s people massively settled in South Africa that will bring it out of its crap as they were the ones that fought the battle in the courts which the black population couldn’t.
Well call me slow but you are keeping me in suspense. To which great country do you refer? Perhaps you are being other than serious! I confess to being confused by your comment. Do tell.
Hello, I do apologize for my more than lame attempt at being mysterious. I was hoping to initiate a very serious discussion and I am glad that you replied. Mahatma Gandhi was the key to the establishment of the ANC and it received massive support from the Indian Government for many decades. Indians, mostly those that were kicked out by Idi Amin, worked to fight apartheid within the legal system of South Africa at the time. It wasn’t the pressure of US Blacks that brought whites in SA to heel..it was the recognition that the legal fight brought by the 2nd class (as Blacks were the 3rd Class Citizens) citizens wouldn’t stand up in the world much longer given the fight that the Indian Government was preparing for at the UN. Please note that India didn’t do this out of some egalitarian motive, rather it was due to the pressure brought forth by the newly arrived immigrants and the memory of Gandhi being in South Africa and his relationship to the ANC, but, most importantly, India’s policy of Non-Aligned in the World and holding the P5 at the UN accountable was the primary motivation. India position would go down the drain if it had ignored South Africa.
Regardless of how South Africa obtained its “independence”, fact remains that the Indians in South Africa have the deepest and broadest and the best relationships with the “blacks” and with the Indian Establishment in India, including its elites. And, that is due to over a Century’s worth of living with the Blacks and working, going to prison, and dying for them. Of course, for their own freedom as well, so nothing totally egalitarian. South Africa’s inclusion into BRICS wasn’t due to Russia or China but India, as India recognizes that the real global war is going to take place over the entire African Continent, not Asia (too much for everyone to lose) and is preparing itself for that to be the 4th player. And, the key to that is South Africa for India.
Russia, US, EU, and China will have influence but it won’t amount to much other than fancy, glamorous projects as the real decisions will be made by the real oligarchs together with the neo-oligarchs that the author of the article presents. A very shameful example of the real oligarchs is the Indian Mafiaso Family, collectively known as the Guptas.
Again, in order for a remote country to take over another country for the purpose of “managing it for positive goals” requires a very deep and trusting relationship that it TIME-TESTED and at all levels of society, not just the top. Only India has that as the Dutch, the British, the Americans don’t have that despite all three being present for centuries for these three are identified with everything the “Blacks” despise.
Anyways, India won’t make its move before 2024 and there are very several good reasons for that but I digress..
I look forward to you tearing apart what I have stated above. I haven’t taken the time provide references and so please feel to trash it. I just state from knowledge of the past 4 decades..
Paul; Always interested in a good political learning exercise. I do not have any direct knowledge of what you write re India and South Africa. I have not developed any confidence whatsoever that India is capable of playing a liberator role in the world struggle. To the best of my knowledge the current Indian leadership is, as Mulga keeps saying, fascist. Hindu centric. What is your reason for saying that India has a timeline of 2024 for a progressive engagement in South Africa? And what would their motive be? As far as I can see India is still run by its own oligarchs who have a long history of self directed subservience to foreign rulership. Not that I have any intimate knowledge of internal Indian dynamics. Do educate us if you can.
The best elements of Indian civilization would be a boon to any country-particularly India. But Modi and the Hindutva caste fascists are not the best of India, I’m afraid. In any case as I repeat monotonously, India will be an early and gigantic casualty of anthropogenic climate destabilisation. The problem in South Africa, I believe, is that the ANC and Saint Nelson (Mandela sold out, so Hollywood loved him, in public, while Mugabe did not and became the Black Devil) sold out to transnational capital and neoliberalism, hence the disaster of failed nation-building and popular empowerment.
Yes Mandela went bad in the end. Sold out and used his status as authoritarian bully to impose his liberalism. As usual Mulga you nailed it.
With the mini ice age progressing, with its inherent climate change being increasingly felt, resource contention is expected to increase. The USA has seemed to have reserved South America for itself; Russia, with its relatively small population, has Siberia; so the only place left for everyone else to secure resources, relatively easily, is Africa.
North Africa is firmly under US / Nato control, they can change the leadership there whenever they want. France is very present in West Africa. Something was happening in Central Africa, but Russia now has a small force in the Central African Republic. Previously a small South African contingent was present there, but someone paid Chad to kick those South African forces out in a clandestine fashion.
China definitely has its eye on sub Saharan Africa, and now it seems, so does India. Oh well, they say that competition is good. We live in interesting times indeed.
There is NO ‘mini Ice Age’-the very idea is utterly ludicrous with record temperatures being recorded worldwide. What is proceeding, very rapidly, is climate destabilisation caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and the rising atmospheric levels of those gases, plus various positive feedbacks like megafires, albedo changes, melting permafrost, warming seas and soils and the destruction of forests.
Yes, but even the Chinese are saying that we are headed into a global cooling
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/chinas-scientists-publicly-say-we-are-headed-into-global-cooling/
All the author is talking about is, firstly, the fact that South Africa is going downhill – True; and secondly, the fact that some Whites are being genocided in South Africa – False.
South Africa is going downhill. At first it was going downhill slowly and this trend was expected to continue for some decades at least, but then the downhill trend sped up considerably. The main reason for the speed up is the Gupta’s, Indian nationals who somehow acquired the ability to appoint government ministers and CEO and CFO’s for the various state owned companies in South Africa, and then channelled contracts according to their interests, with very little delivery from those contracts. They even very nearly got it right to appoint the Minister of Finance for South Africa.
Just a matter of interest, the Gupta brothers’ saga started when their father set his sons up with some capital and sent them to various countries to see what business could be done in the various countries. When the son sent to South Africa hit gold, figuratively, the rest of the brothers flocked to South Africa. This is very reminiscent as to how a certain family with red shields started their business empire back in the day.
The Guptas would have been just an annoyance were it not for the fact that their intrigues contributed to Eskom’s decline. Eskom is the monopoly electricity supplier in South Africa. Eskom is currently saddled with humungous, unpayable debt as well as being unable to produce the electricity the country requires. Had the Gupta’s just stuck to non-Eskom activities in South Africa, the rate of the country’s decline would have been slow and steady, and perhaps reversible, but the Gupta’s also went for the power house of South Africa, where all the money is located, Eskom. Now even Egypt produces more electricity than South Africa.
With regards to constant whine about whites being genocided in South Africa, the following article from the good old days of colonization in Kenya explains it all.
“Great care has been given to some writings to describe the individual attacks upon white settlers. Often names and descriptions of the white victims are given to personalize them to the reader. The settlers are described in such a way that they are almost innocent of whatever they had done to oppress the Kikuyu.” …”When the British has suppressed the Mau Mau nationalist movement, only 32 whites had been killed. Of the 120,000 Kikuyu partisans who started the revolt, only 15,000 were alive and free in 1955.”
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/04/19/the-mau-mau-a-movement-for-land-liberation/
The same settler propaganda from the days of colonialism is being utilized today.
Most of what you write here about problems of our country is true ( except the part about whites being victims ), but you do not suggest any solution .
How many farmers took up the offer to go to Russia? 2? 10? No African slave workers in Europe.
You are not victims for God sake.
Stop this childish behavior for once and become patriots of this country that gave so much to you. Work together with this ANC led goverment to find solutions for this beautiful country.
You acquired skills during apartheid. It’s time to say “sorry” with action and plough back.
Or leave, because you are wasting time by becoming the enemy within of people who are willing to work with you. BRICS is our only hope.
The last part you added about Jewish people- they enjoyed White privilege but were never our direct oppressors.
Your group has to extend a hand of friendship and as SA citizens we can discuss land ownership.
Israel was Afrikaaner South Africa’s closest friend and ally. The two racist, terrorist, apartheid states were a match not made in Heaven.
Mulga, have you ever wondered why the racist Apart-hate Afrikaaner State was so easily brought down by BDS and a run on their currency, while the racist Apart-hate Jewish State has not been?
Hint: the Afrikaaners were on track to economic independence; they were developing Afrikaaner owned industries (I remember Rembrandt cigarettes and SASOL oil from coal) — perhaps even their own banks.
In spite of the hype Boers cannot legally own land in Russia unless they spend 10 years living there. Many Boers are actually farming in other African countries north of South Africa – on invitation by some of those countries because of their farming expertise. It would also be easier for them to just go to countries with fertile land where they can buy land easily, like in South America for example, so Russia is quite a difficult option in comparison.
No man should own land. Produce is sufficient reward. Land ownership is the main colonial drive.
Lord Macaulay’s proposal tot he British parliament in 1832 was indeed executed by the European Settler Colonists on the land inhabited by Bantu Nations . In order to understand what is currently happening in the country, one has to realize that black and white are opposite ends of the same stick. Hence the black vs white divide is an illusion inhibiting, objective analysis. I am of the opinion that South Africa’s problems are primarily caused by two things, namely ; Institutionalized Corruption and Mental Slavery/Colonization. There is a need to groom the right kind of leadership and to educate people accordingly.
Comparing South Africa and Russia is ridiculous IMHO. Has the writer ever lived in Africa (I was born in Cairo and lived there for my first 12 years)? Has the writer ever visited a place like Lagos (I have)?
What I am getting at is there is a huge difference in intelligence (IQ) between the populations of South Africa and Russia.
This huge difference between Europe and Africa is being eroded in Western Europe by the massive importation of people with a much lower IQ and a much greater fecundity.
Even with the best management in the world, South Africa is doomed. In 1900, there were as many Whites as Blacks in South Africa. Today, it has 10 times more Blacks. What do you expect?
Truly sad to see the state South Africa is now in, with the vast inequality, violence, corruption and extreme poverty, given the huge sense of goodwill prior to the ANC taking power in the country’s first democratic elections.
Neoliberalism is like a corrosive cancer that taints everything and everyone it touches. Such promises of a new, prosperous, and free future decades ago have now crumbled into dust for the vast majority.
A couple of points:
“and in South Africa, they are even killing Ukrainians in hiding : http://www.radiofreesouthafrica.com/mexican-council-votes-cape-town-as-africas-most-dangerous-city/
Yet, the black cadres are still plotting and planning revolution : http://www.radiofreesouthafrica.com/we-foresee-a-revolution-militants-in-secret-black-power-drill/”
Radio free south africa, interesting title choice for the site…
https://www.radiofreesouthafrica.com/about/
”
About
I am an expat South African. When I immigrated to the USA I expected the news media to be on fire about the injustices being endured by the 3.5 M remaining white population in SA.
I was stunned to find that, worldwide, not one Mainstream news source was talking about this.
So, with the help of Carla (The Sister Thunder Show) we started a weekly programme called “Voices of South Africa”. Gary Gatehouse (The Gary Gatehouse Show) then gave us a 30 minute spot on his show every week. American White History Month (Marhsall Nicely) gave us a 2 hour weekly show and Rage Against the Regime (Becky and Bobby) gave us the same. The WINN Network (on Reach Out America) then took up the cause and invited us to be part of the network, (Bobby Beesinger).”
Of course they are no relation to radio free europe or radio marti, that would be too obvious…
;-D
#2
“And finally, for those that always ask me What About Da Joos?
Da Joos still own much of the mining, now only sharing with black leadership.”
In the past, I’ve seen the phrase “da joos” or “the joos” used by zionazi web spammers to smear anti-zionists. Example: someone posts a critique of israel or something zionazi and a zio-spammer would then post something sarcastic like “it’s the joos, they are behind it all”, implying the original critic was being antisemitic. Have not seen “da joos” used much lately, seeing it reminded me of the guardian’s now fortunately defunkt talkboard where that websayanim attack routine was routine. A couple of years ago, one of the critters tried the same crap here for a short while.
These two “warning flags” aside, the article seemed rather scatterbrained. At one point the author was posting anti BRICS and anti China propaganda, then further on suggested SA would benefit from Chinese control. :-D
Another section he compared SA and Russia, in order to denigrate the SA government, and more subtly, SA Blacks. SA and Russia, and their historical experience, have very, very little in common. One might as well compare the historical experiences of Iran and Denmark. :-D This being a Russian friendly site, it’s clear the Russian “praise” was site targeting psywar to gain sympathy for the author’s propaganda.
Now who does that sort of thing… ;-D
A few comments – the experimental comparison of two BRICS countries was actually successful, because the numbers talk. The idea here was to illustrate good management and economic trajectory. I believe the experimental comparison did that and it did not set out to compare ideologies.
The scatterbrained nature of the society is clear, with some holding on to western cold war ideas, while at the same time espousing good proper Marxists ideas. I have never seen this anywhere else to this extent. It re-enforces exactly what Black Agenda Radio says : Marxist talk, while deeply embedded in extractive capitalism. It is quite something difficult to get one’s head around.
For information, Radio Free South Africa is a one-woman show and I truly believe she did not even understand the similarity to other such names, when she chose that one. It is what I am trying to illustrate – the common and wrong understanding is if you work for whites, you are racist. It is wrong, because if you worked for your church for example, are you then going to be churchist? This issue is being badly used by white supremacists to push their point and this helps with hiding what is really going on, i.e., the country is being managed into rack and ruin, the white folks are just about excluded from workplace and business affairs by law. Is that not deeply racist?
Refer Paul Craig Roberts with this new publication:
“White South Africans believe that Genocide is in their future. Next month a delegation of South African white people is coming to Washington in an effort to secure US diplomatic support to ward off what they fear is black preparation for a genocidal war against the white citizens of South Africa.
In 1994 the white South African government turned over power to the blacks. For some years the political situation was stable under president Nelson Mandela and the influence of Bishop Desmond Tutu. But as time passed their successors became more radical and less reasonable. In part radicalization stemmed from economic corruption and mismanagement. Unable to meet the expectations of blacks that black government would mean a better economic life, black political leaders sharpened their rhetoric against whites. Other tribes resented the one party rule of the ANC. Another black political party rose and competed with the ANC on the grounds that they hated whites more and would redistribute more from the white citizens than the ANC. To keep its hold the ANC had to match the threats against the white South Africans. Brutal and horrific attacks on white farm families have exploded, and a policy of expropriation of white-owned farms without compensation is being pushed through the government. A leader of the ANC’s armed wing is calling for young blacks to join training camps in preparation for the civil war against whites. Calls for taking up arms against the white citizens are increasing. Calls for cleansing South Africa of whites are words of popular songs and are ever present at political rallies. ”
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/16/is-white-genocide-in-our-future/
The rose-colored glasses about South Africa and ‘great freedom’ needs to be taken off now and reality must be faced.
A short second comment – Da Joos. As I don’t know the sources that you cite for this expression as I don’t hang around there, I may well explain that I tried a little ‘local accent’ but so that everyone internally would get it. Of course, it would be closer to ‘di juice’ in reality but I think very few would have gotten that.
This bit: “site targeting psywar to gain sympathy for the author’s propaganda”. Well, what propaganda? That there is a group of people in real trouble because of race hatred driven violence, because of being legislated out of the workplace, because of their livelihoods being threatened? It is only those who refuse to look at it, that do not see that. They see that in Russia, they know that in France, Dr. NG Maroudas that comments here and it is clear that he has South African experience on the ground sees that, the current president has acknowledged that, some members of his parliament has acknowledged that, there are rural defense units being set up because of the rural violence against whites. So, while previously only the supremacists of some or other nature spoke about it, it is now open and the reality of that is being acknowledged. To try to hang the word ‘propaganda’ as an excuse on what is a true reflection of the state of the rural areas and those who live there in South Africa, does not work any longer.
The Lauren Southern documentary, Farmlands, may give people an idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_bDc7FfItk
South Africa stands in solidarity with Palestine…I believe – at least in words…but it means alot to Palestinians.
Indeed South Africa is in strong solidarity with Palestine .Arafat was one of the first leaders Nelson Mandela visited after he was released from prison. He was in prison with Jewish heroes of our liberation like Joe Slovo and Ronnie Kastrils who have also distanced themselves from actions of Israel.
“The Neo-Chiefs in the Ruling Party do not care for the minorities, and neither do they care for their own.”
So what’s new? Join the club: U$A UK France Greece India Indonesia Canada Australia Thailand…
The South African people’s fight for economic equality stalled when the ANC abandoned its Communist roots and rested its attention on Identity Politics; so did the rest of the world. But South Africa is silent about the most important Identity of modern Identity Politics. Anglo-Jewish financiers own the banks, the mines, factories, land and the politicians — just like the rest of the Western world. The only example I know of where a European country reversed the downhill slide after abandoning Communism and being taken over by Anglo Zio Capitalism is Russia under Putin.
Alas, there are very few Leaders of such ability and true patriotism (for all his peoples) as Putin. I hope my native country can find such a Leader again: someone of the stature, inclusiveness and far sight of Smuts, Luthuli, Biko, Mandela — but this time a Communist like the ANC used to have, because it is Money Men who are sucking the life out of South Africa. Why must South Africa’s raw diamonds be sent to Israel to ‘have value added’? As bad as the old days when South Africa’s raw diamonds went to the Jewish quarter of Antwerp to “have value added”. And why must workers be shot when they demand a better deal? As bad as Sharpeville; and as bad as France where Rothschild agent Macron sends armed police to use live ammunition on French citizens.
Dr. NG Maroudas, yes. That was truly as bad as Sharpeville.
@The Writer: “[Jews] still own much of the mining, now only sharing with black leadership. They do what they do in other countries, and of course many have left South Africa, so, they manage their holdings from afar, well integrated with the neo-chiefs. Those that are still there, still protest BDS and work for Israeli causes. But the Jews were inherently racist and the word ‘schwartzes’ was used frequently, so, the ordinary rank and file to a large measure left the country.”
Your description (above) seems to me fair, and not slanted toward Zionazi propaganda. Some of my family are Afrikaaners, some are Jews, most are ordinary South African Christians of “White” European origin — English, Greek and Croatian. It was mainly the Jews who left, as you say, and who can blame them after their WW2 experience. The last time I visited a big kibbutz in Israel I was told that many of these expats were returning to South Africa. One of my Polish-Jewish-French relatives recently emigrated to the Cape, and has happily married a high-powered Bantu businesswoman. So my native country is still a “Land of Opportunity”. But you left out one important point about Jews in South Africa: not only are they the only ones to play Dual Citizen (as you say) but they also own the banks; this is a disaster for South Africa — as it has been for Britain, France, the USA, and dozens of other countries which have not only had investment capital sucked out of them to land up in London offshore accounts, but have also been conned into losing U$ Trillions by fighting wars against Israel’s never-ending List of Existential Enemies.
As for the Afrikaaners, I understand their fears but they do not need sympathy, they are brave, able, people — a match for any other ethnic group in the Rainbow Country. But I feel sorry for South Africa as a whole, now that the ANC has abandoned Communist solidarity, and started to play Identity Politics; especially some of the Jews pushing their Solidarity with Israel instead of Solidarity with South African Workers. But South Africa is no longer the odd man out. Identity Politics is being used worldwide as a tool of Anglo Zio Capitalism to destabilize Syria, Yugoslavia, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and China. This resurgence of ethnic strife is no longer just a case of “Cry the Beloved Country”; it is more like “Cry the Beloved World”. Socialist Solidarity as the only answer, because the real illness of South Africa is global Capitalism — setting the Little People against one another. How did it come about than only Capitalism went Global? Workers of the World, Unite!
Thank-you for a very valid comment. We agree on Socialist Solidarity being one solution, probably the only one in my view, but not while we are totally in cahoots with extractive capitalism. And, like you said before, Oh, for another Putin! An African one!
And we read the same books :-). Cry the Beloved Country opened my eyes and then the poetry of Adam Small.
It does not translate so well, but anyway …
What abou’ de lô (What about the law) by Adam Small
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmQhCrfdCnA
It seems that mentioning the fact that the IQ of Blacks in South Africa is way below that of Russians is a taboo subject. My comment has disappeared.
That is what happens when the writer has never been to Black Africa. The article makes no sense unless this scientific fact is recognized.
The average IQ of Blacks in sub-Saharan Africa is 68
The average IQ of White Russians is 103
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222062631_The_Average_IQ_of_Sub-Saharan_Africans_Comments_on_Wicherts_Dolan_and_Van_der_Maas
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262679272_A_study_of_the_intelligence_of_Kazakhs_Russians_and_Uzbeks_in_Kazakhstan
@Alfred Cairns: “It seems that mentioning the fact that the IQ of Blacks in South Africa is way below that of Russians is a taboo subject. My comment has disappeared.”
Your racist/sexist/monetarist IQ-mongering rubbish has not disappeared, I saw it above and thought it did not deserve an answer. Even very intelligent people fall for “The Bell Curve” nonsense; eg, Shockley the quantum physicist thinks the less melanin (sun-protective pigment) in a man’s skin the more intelligent he must be; Watson the molecular geneticist thinks women are less intelligent than men. Both Shockley and Watson are very intelligent men — but they have the sort of sharp cleverness that thinks only in black and white, that tends to push to the limit with simple concepts.
I could go on, but better to leave with an anecdote. During a pilgrimage to Cold Spring Harbour NY (the Mecca of Molecular Biology) I happened to meet Dr.Watson in his office, and he confided that he had a problem. His problem was an Old Woman researcher who had been wasting valuable Lab Space for years with her Old Fashioned Botany instead of doing brand new Molecular Biology like all his other bright young researchers. Watson simply could not shift her out. A few years later that Old Lady won the Nobel Prize; and Watson consoled himself by writing that Women are Less Intelligent than Us.
“It seems that mentioning the fact that the IQ of Blacks in South Africa is way below that of Russians is a taboo subject. My comment has disappeared.”
I see it has not disappeared. It is disrespectful and maliciously insulting on many levels. This ‘sphere of pretend quasi research’ is one of the most vile concoctions that I have ever seen from the white supremacist deeply racist cadre in their reduction of human beings to a method of measurement first designed and used to find suitably pliable military recruits. This ‘quasi-research’ is disgusting and it is disgusting how these kinds of people lap up their youtubes designed to make themselves feel oh so superior to anyone else, finding their own value only at the expense of others. It is aberration research much venerated by white supremacists, who cannot stand firm in their own identity, but have to puff up their own importance by reducing others. It is truly venomous.
@The Writer
IQ is the most developed parameter in social sciences by far. And yes the quotes by Alfred (Cairns) lead to one of the sadest things a human can think about.
@Dr. NG Maroudas
Please elaborate on “the bell-curve-nonsense”. I dont see the argument in your comment, but two rather blunt anectodes (no offense meant).
I am honestly interested in arguments against Alfreds quoted findings.
Take a German, a Russian, a Polish , an English, a French , then break the very backbone of their spiritual and cultural heritage. Educate and brainwash them to suit the selfish needs of their Black. Jewish and Indian masters. Put them in an artificial country call it South Europe and run the experiment for two centuries in an Apartheid system fronting for Neo-liberal ideologues. That is how South Africa was created by Britain using Lord Macaulay proposal ( see the archive material attached to this article) . Historically the West never takes ownership of crimes against humanity it committed throughout the World and a typical western stereotype finds it difficult to think of a Black person on equal terms as a fellow human (Lord Macaulay proposal clearly illustrates this point). South Africa is home to several Bantu nations. Traditionally Bantu are a spiritual people, who measure man by a quality called Botho / Ubuntu which translates to Humanity. Man is the top of evolution and Botho is a quality that ensures that a person is worthy of such an elevated and esteemed position .When Jesus said “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” that is Botho. Black vs White divide is diametrically opposite to Botho.
There is a lot of good info and stats here, and some fresh perspective.
One thing I think the author misses is that Marxism IS “Neo Chiefs” practicing “Destructive Capitalism.” Marxism / Communism is designed to liquidate the assets of a society for the favor of Oligarchs not through voluntary trade, but using Graft, government licences and the force of the government.
It’s time to drop the idea that Marxism is somehow this nice fantasy in planning but in practice it implemented wrong. South Africa is exactly what Marxism seeks to create, a drained and destroyed society with a few politicians being nicely paid to manage the liquidation.
You sir are committing the intellectual error of defining a thing by its distortion. The trick is in knowing the difference between the authentic thing and its distorted form. When it comes to Marxism, Mark, you have clearly not mastered that distinction. Never fear you are among many.
I remember watching the 2008 Zimbabwean elections covered by the South African mainstream colonial media complex. It must have been the last of the analogue color revolutions. We witnesses how BIG NGO’s were on-the-ground feeding doom and gloom talking points international media bobble heads. Even GW Bush and his British lapdog Gordan Brown rolled up their sleeves for the event. It became clear that the South African main opposition, the Democratic Alliance was absolutely aligned with the Washington and London regimes. The DA played the script perfectly, even going as far as halting a scheduled shipment of arms from China to Zimbabwe. The leader of the DA was hysterically bemoaning that Mugabe planned to use the arms on his people.
The SA President Thabo Mbeki was woke to the regime change op taking place. He told GW Bush to back off and South Africa was labeled a “rouge nation” by the GW Bush regime. The very next day South Africa’s colonial mainstream media sided with the Butcher of Bagdad. The headline read: “Mbeki. Lame Duck President’.
The big difference between the Zimbabwean War of Independence and The Iranian Islamic Revolution (both 40 years old), is while the Iranians were dismantling all mechanisms of Western elite control over their economy, Mugabe was drinking tea with the Queen and allowing British liberals to climb up his ass. He woke up too late.
In South Africa “White Monopoly Capital” is merely a subsidiary of what folks here refer to as the AngloZionist Empire, which controls the South African reserve bank, finance, media, advertising. None of the mainstream colonial media houses championed the BRICS initiative as a national ambition. Instead they copy and paste, verbatim, from global western-centric MSN.
It is interesting to note that Jacob Zuma was brought down by a decade long media coup. Why? It’s because in my opinion, the South African market is only free within the framework of the 100 year old establishes financial monopoly. This system is allergic to Indian and Chinese business practices. An Indian and Chinese businessman will always win on price. It took the infamous Gupta family less than a decade to penetrate key markets controlled by the WMC boys club. There was panic. The spin and propaganda was amateurish and messy for many years. Bad enough to get Zuma elected for a second five year term. At some point the campaign to regime-change Zuma became centrally controlled. Dozens of social media echo chambers were launched to step up the campaign. The mainstream media were publishing brand new, never heard before controversy re Zuma every second day.
There is no way South Africa can rid itself of the parasite. The old apartheid regime was a vassal of the AZ empire and so it continues in the new South Africa. President Zuma dared to challenge the established monopoly by deepening ties with BRICS and was regime-changed by a media coup. It was that easy. The ANC is a defenceless analogue player in a digital hybrid war. They don’t stand a chance.
Excellent comment Kullid.
Thabo Mbeki was opposed within the ANC because he was not corrupt and tried to implement necessary reforms for sound economic Management. Zuma ran a skilful campaign that successfully ousted him,and the results are what we are seeing now.
Zuma’s only success was his unwavering support of BRICS,but whether this was due to the prevailing mood then(the push back against One World order becane evident globally,Putin’s robust efforts at introducing multi-latetalism,Xi’s rolling out BRI/OBOR officially, Lula rallying the troops in South America)or an instinctive Leftist-leaning of a former Freedom Fighter, remains to be seen.
Some good points, Kullid, but let´s look at this from another angle. Let´s for a moment put ourselves in a neutral position and look at the historical support for the African National Congress, from the East and from the West (ignoring for now support from other parts of the world and considering these two main centres of foreign influence in/upon the ANC).
During the cold war the ANC had “a London office” in the form of the anti-apartheid movement, and “a Moscow office” in the form of Soviet Union support and of course it is well known that ANC exiles went to Russia and UK universities to study and of course made many political connections during those times. Now, the Cold War may be over and things have moved on somewhat, but support from both centres of power remain in place in the sense that UK (also representing EU and the silent partner Israel) and Russian governments (also representing all of BRICS) have good relations with the ANC-led South African government today (notwithstanding all the recent troubles including some human rights concerns, etc). During the cold war both entities invested in different factions of the ANC and after the cold war some returns on investments would most likely be expected.
This leads to the next point: Former president Jacob Zuma represented the “Eastern Office” – he went with BRICS and current president Cyril Ramaphosa went with “Western Office” (Anglo-Zio-EU side).
Now, for a moment let´s consider the Boers position in this, specifically in relation to receiving support for their situation from the Anglo side or BRICS side. Many Anglo/EU countries funded and supported the anti-apartheid movement and many BRICS countries (all?) supported the ANC during the Cold War. So the East and West were on the same page in removing the Boers from power. How realistic is it to expect these sides to somehow support the Boers and this point in time? Is it not somewhat naive of the Boers to actually be lobbying in the USA and Australia and also amongst the pro-Russia community for support?
During Zuma´s reign critcism from BRICS were muted to non-existent and during Ramaphosa´s tenure criticism has almost been non-existent: “Rampahosa remains South Africa´s last hope” in spite of a massive detiorioration in all spheres since he came in. Many Boers/Afrikaners consider him much more dangerous to the future of the country than Zuma.
Both Zuma and Ramaphosa have used the land (confiscation) and populist anti-white rhetotic and sentiment to boost support for the ANC, going directly against the Mandela vision of reconciliation and “the Rainbow Nation”, which now appears to just have been the first stage in a two phase revolution (the so-called NDR: National Democratic Revolution) which was never part of the negiotiated settlement to democracy in 1992 – 1994.
The Boers being “the natural custodians of the land” – meaning their own farmlands, which they have been on for centuries in many cases – stand in the way of access to all land and resources for the national ANC governmengt to do with as they see fit – for example to grant mineral rights and other acces to foreign partners.
The Jacob Zuma e-mail leaks and just two weeks ago, the Ramaphosa e-mail leaks have shown that the ANC is open to business for and to the highest “bidders”. The reason why there is such sparse reporting on the SA situation internationally is due to so much international involvement in South African affairs.
Lets consider for a moment the American conservatives / right who strongly support Israel. Now, let´s consider the history of British and financier involvement in South Africa´s mining sector (and the reason for the Anglo Boer War) and then let´s consider the anglo and financier ancestors still living in South Africa – the native English speaking South Africans – mostly DA and ANC supporters – who never formed a local concept of nationhood or a unique culture. The heartland is still in the Anglo-sphere, so they are not necessarily againts the Anglo-Western influence and meddling in SA affairs. Neither are (most) black South Africans who have to a large extent assim,ilated to Anglo culture and for example even demand English in their own schools and universities to the exlusion of their own native indegenous languages. The American conservatives will support Israel before they will support Boers in South Africa just because Afrikaners/Boers are supposed to be conservatives. Also, keep in mind the American conservatives are still Anglos. So they are unlilkley to take a strong stand in support of Boers in light of Anglo-sphere support for ANC Government to remain in power, preferably with a president in place that is pro-Anglo business prospects in SA. (Anglo mines for example have very favuyrable tax rates, better than under apartheid).
So the white population is split in SA: With the Boers/Afrikaners (and a few Anglo South Africans and some mixed race Afrikaans speakers plus also some strategic support from Zulus) on the one side and on the other side the white English speakers from Anglo descent (many of them holding British passports). With the black South Africans being predominantly on the white-Anglo side.
This puts the Boers right in the middle of all the factions, being completely comitted to the country, yet disliked by everyone and seen as a hindrence and a threat (in spite of having been the main food produces of the country for centuries up to today,even in the face of a violent onslaught upon them through farm attacks, random and otherwise). The Boers will prevail nonetheless – as they always have. They have only one country – the one where their culture was formed through ethnogenisis in the land which took blood, sweat and tears to build up and develop and they arrived before several other groups, colonial and African (from the North) who now claim Boers must somehow evacuate their own country.
There is still time for a return to reconciliuation – the Boers have done their part so far and have not reneged on any deals.
We were posted to a former MASH hospital at Outapi, Namibia from 2006-2009.
We met both boers and Herrero, San, Bantu, Ovambo, and Zulu peoples.
We tried to create a renewable energy company in consortium with Namibian School of Science and Technology. With vendors lined up, and financing arranged, we found frustration at every turn, until a minister of the Government of Namibia bluntly told us “this belongs to us”.
Whereupon, I disassembled the enterprise, boarded my ship and sailed to the west indies.
Russia should open her arms to the boers…. They will grow her agricultural base enormously….
RSA should be left to her own devices…..
INDY
so what the hell is Indy going to do in the west indies?
true he might get what he wants..they are in love with the white skin still in the west indies to give him what he wants. but how does that benefit the west indies?
the west indies is just as much a struggling socially backward jackarse location, going nowhere fast… as is RSA. Indy would be able to bribe there to his hearts content for that is the way to do bizness there. there is no sincerity and if that is his way he is going to the wrong place
I have no idea why you people want out of Africa and most if not all of the former colonies dealing with western structures of governance and administrative organization constituted to place power in the hands of President Prime ministers/cabinet/electoral parliaments etc. the social entity for participation in such is the political party which in itself, structurally is a vested minority interest that will corrupt all in its way in order to exist and succeed
this has little to do with race. he never had anything to do with race just plain interest relative to what you do to make a living in life. if you are a politician then you are for sale to the highest bidder..pure and simple. this same process has produced the most extreme case of colonization probably ever in the case of the USA..the heart of the empire itself..for the Americans are totally, comprehensively colonized by its Khazarian/Zionist ultimately global, financial and religiously ‘Jewish’ element.
what about that then?
the whole organizational structure of all those countries like RSA is one corrupt example imposed on them, that the capitalist is past master corrupting, manipulating..that is why that structure is there, en placed. there were few honest people at independence involved in the struggle..and the process in place produces none. and that is what it would take to run a situation like RSA honestly in that embedded process that is set up to produce total corruption..the best sort of situation off which capitalism and political parties feed. what do we want..the corrupt to kill corruption?
and when the ordinary folk do manage to elect or otherwise en place good government here comes the empire to overthrow them..color revolutions everywhere, not to mention outright invasions, war, sanctions etc
I hate a thread like this. if and when such people as those of RSA kick out these stinking dog exploiters regardless of skin color, and create systematically whatever works for them..that may bear no semblance or similarity to the ridiculous wasteful and useless capitalist democracy and electoral politics where will you all be relative to such development?
in the past you all have been utterly and totally against all but such systems..constituted enslavement I call it with the pyramid structure of social organisation. that cannot work for the majority..will always enslave the majority. they people must find a representative way to express the popular will in the way they live.
only that will work now for the nations and ultimately. and we should stop beating up on the multitudes of ordinary, savagely exploited, uneducated masses of the world..who may not yet know that their answer lies in falling upon such as Ramaphosa and his crowd, all the politicians, all the capitalists, bureaucrats etc., and eliminating them period..killing them off totally and putting in place what is for the people and by they themselves
I haven’t read this article, but it includes an image (cited by “Jika” in the comments here) of words supposedly spoken by some British politician, Lord Macaulay, about how Africa needs to have its culture replaced by an Anglocentric culture. There are two problems with this: first, the quote has already been widely circulated, but with Macaulay speaking about India rather than Africa; second, the quote is a fabrication anyway.
It illustrates clearly the mindset of the British colonialists, no matter where they colonized and that is the purpose.
@Mitchell. Macaulay was a favourite author of mine at school, and I know he prospered as an employee of the East India company. But I did not know he made political speeches. Thank you for pointing out that the above quote from Macaulay is a fabrication — which I admit I swallowed
Let us not be so fast. That quote is highly controversial, but is not a fabrication. The whole story makes for the writing of a 8,000 words essay as well as personal investigation of the documents in question. It could almost be a PhD.
Macauly himself included the Indian empire with the South African new initiative at the time -. his words: “all our native subjects”. He goes on about the other languages being inferior to the Mighty and Great English (a little sarcastically expressed of course). This is clear in his Minute on Education, point 12. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html
” [12] How then stands the case? We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of the West. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us, –with models of every species of eloquence, –with historical composition, which, considered merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of ethical and political instruction, have never been equaled– with just and lively representations of human life and human nature, –with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, government, jurisprudence, trade, –with full and correct information respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of greater value than all the literature which three hundred years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together. Nor is this all. In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australia, –communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects. ”
Imran Khan used that quote here : https://twitter.com/imrankhanpti/status/522207256994013184?lang=en
And for everyone that calls the quote into question, at the most, it could be mis-attributed, but that is by no means clear.
” One of the favorite quotes of Finnish politician Juho Kusti Paasikivi, supposedly from Macauley, but have been unable to locate it. Being translated to Finnish and then back to English does not help here. OttoMäkelä
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Thomas_Babington_Macaulay,_1st_Baron_Macaulay (talk) 11:02, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
I did some research about this for the Finnish Wikipedia and it turned out that the quote is (supposedly) from Thomas Carlyle and not Macaulay. Paasikivi adopted it from w:Johan Vilhelm Snellman who wrote in Swedish. And even Snellman might have read Carlyle as a translation (Swedish, German?) so it’s quite difficult to tell what’s the original wording of the quote. –Risukarhi (talk) 15:58, 15 October 2018 (UTC)”
The issue again is that the prevailing attitude of the British colonialists is summed up. Who made the quote? Where, when, exactly how, Indian colonization, South African colonization, Australian colonization .. that is not clear and that quote is certainly not debunked.
The language with all the translations is also called into question, with that specific quote represented as follows in certain research areas: “The actual words from Macaulay in 1835 (and NOT from his Minute on India Education):
“I accept catholic beyond the across and across of India and I accept not apparent one getting who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such abundance I accept apparent in this country, such top moral values, humans of such caliber, that I do not anticipate we would anytime beat this country, unless we breach the actual courage of this nation, which is her airy and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I adduce that we alter her old and age-old apprenticeship system, her culture, for if the Indians anticipate that all that is adopted and English is acceptable and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their built-in self-culture and they will become what we ambition them, a absolutely bedeviled nation.”
@Amarynth. Thanks for the link to Macaulay’s powerful speech in Parliament on the advantage of Indians learning English — because we were so obviously superior that Hindu students were actually willing to pay us to teach them English. It certainly shows the same arrogant mentality as the disputed Macauley quotation above — though written in a less brutal style, more like the Macaulay I remember from school.
Reminds me of apocryphal advice to native Britons in Roman times: “Learn Latin and get ahead”.
Gibraltar released the Iranian tanker 45 days after its detention in the waters of the state. The state made this decision. White House defeat: Gibraltar releases Iranian tanker
White House defeat: Gibraltar releases Iranian tanker
Compare SA to Black Run American cities for the closest match.
Great cities of the USA, reduced to no go zones, murder “capitals”, crumbling infrastructure, etc.
Mr Writer thanks for your article. I close by saying that us and them. Black vs White or Dualism in short, inevitably leads to violence. Unfortunately human beings have an inbuilt tendency to identify with their bodies , family, culture, religion and country .This is good for survival, however it is inclined towards exclusivity. There is another instinct for expansion. It is inclusive in nature . Typically you will hear a seriously learned individual say , “the more I learn the more I realize how ignorant I am”. Borders inhibit learning. If Lord Macaulay was a more balanced man he would have realized that the achievements of the African (1832) societies could provide vital lessons for his society which had beggars, criminals and corrupt governance. Human issues are easily solved when addressed as human issues. The moment the us and them element goes to play, vital opportunities are lost. Drop Black / White blinker and solve your issues as one. It is not difficult, remember the word Bantu means human beings. Proper education, appropriate leadership.
“When does history end? What does a group of people have to do, if their forefathers committed sins? How do they clean their own slate? Is there an international court that can announce and declare that their debt to society has been paid, and it is enough now, and this South African white minority must be freed from the sins of the ancestors?”
The issue is that they are not being allowed to clean their slate in the court of (international) public opinion. No matter what they do, they will not be excused. The have given up power, have handed over the country. have gone through a truth and reconcilliation process, have stayed in the only country they can call home, have comitted themeselves to building the New South Africa, have continued to be the main producers of food, and on and on…
The reason for that comes down to this:
The Boers/Afrikaners have been for a long time the go-to scapegoats of the world. Scapegoats serve a very important function – they (have to) pay for the sins of everyobody else. If the scapegoats are relieved from their ´duty´ then the spotlight might turn to others who have comitted historical mistakes (or worse). Naturally this causes everybody to keep the spotlight on the old scapegoats.
Let me explain further: as a well-travelled South African abroad there is not a country I have been to (I have been to many) where people have not on accasionion gone out of their way to guilt-trip me (guilt by association), being white and South African born) for/about apartheid. This happens online too. Well, here´s the thing. If you do a bit of research you will find out why this always happens to white South Africans abroad and online (even two and half decades after the end of apartheid). You will find that in all the countries ever colonised by Europeans, whether in Australasia, Central & South America and North America, much worse were done to the indigenismos, the native peoples than what was done under apartheid in South Africa. That is why we cannot be relieved from our duties to pay for everyone else. This is the uncomfortable truth and everyone knows this privately.
This is also the reason why it is so hard to come by any information about how black people were uplifted under apartheid (hundreds of millions of Dollars spent) in terms of health, education, jobs and standards of living (giving rise to escalating birth rates and highest standars of living amongst black Africans on the continet), as well as the subsidizing of their etthnic homelands, because if this has to become common knowledge and be compared to all those other countries, it may not be as evident anymore that Boers-Afrikaners are such bad people – which means the spotlight might shift…
“The laws that mostly prohibit these people to take part in the workplace must now be abolished. The weird race-based laws that virtually prevent any white South African from freely running a business must now be abolished. The slow killing of these people must now stop.” – Yes, this is overdue. These double standards must end.
Thanks Protea, you express it well. Yes, we share that scapegoating experience.
I have lived and worked in South Africa for over 20 years, so I have some personal insight into the last 25 neocolonial years. This essay is well intended by badly uninformed (quite typical) South African white person.
There is no need to go into details here, how democracy was won by the ANC, John Pilger in his book “Freedom Next Time” laid it bare and brutally truthful.
Blaming South African “politicians” for the failing state affairs is naive. ANC received in 1994 key for the house, but have never seen the key for the house safe and treasury. South African Reserve Bank is run by FED and Governor is FED employee. Country is run by five sisters (PcW, E&Y, McKinsey, Deloitte, KPMG,…). I have been in the office of minister when fax message (from one of these sisters) of some 370 pages was received on Thursday afternoon with the instruction that it has to be adopted by SA Parliament on the following Monday. No reading, or discussion needed. (BTW, minister had nervous breakdown due to the lack of fax paper, one roll prints 100 pages only).
Even the quick glance into SA budget shows that old Apartheid debt accumulated interest, (debt amount is the best kept secret on the planet) has been paid every year to the tune of 5-6 billion US$.
RSA Government was broke in 2007 but saved by Putin who intervened with 40 billion loan. Never the less Thabo Mbeki on instruction from sisters issued 200 billion US$ bond to cover SA GDP till 2024, just to in debit country beyond ability to repay debts.
Some 13.8 million black families are receiving 80-90 US$ monthly grant in exchange for all South African natural resources.
South African black elite has to turned into compradors while their white compatriots believe that neocolonial bankster cabal is “white” so they are allies on the same side.
For more Africa insight I recommend above mentioned John Pilger book as well as Martin Meredith book “State of Africa” which is must read for everyone who has Africa in it’s heart or mind.
as a former businessman, i recognized the unjust situation in late eighties; its was easy to see. I worked with dlplomatic types and even Johann Rupert. I hosted a dinner after the papers were signed by the de Klerk cabinet. It was meant to be a fair gesture, a transition to retain the efforts of a culture with its faults, best best hopes for the future SA. Met with Mandela the man, and the President in Pretoria (after 100mph motorcaide!!!)
I fondly remember the jacaranda trees.
But, when the ANC slogan began as revolution before education, all hope was lost….met other following presidents that seemed to confirm it….they sold out their country and heritage….only worse now.
All i see is Planet Nine….be happy to help once again, but the patient is terminal. Even Lesotho knows it.