PrintWhat's Going on In South Africa?
Other than natural disasters and major loss of life, Americans rarely pay attention to events occurring around the world — especially if it is a slow process, aided by the left. Such is the case with South Africa. With the end of Apartheid in the early 1990s, the African National Congress (ANC) won power in 1994 and has never relinquished it. What has happened since then has been the embodiment of Critical Race Theory in practice, with predictable results. Americans should pay attention to this, as it will be the endgame in the United States in the not too distant future.
South Africa is beating its carbon reduction goals handily as the power grid is increasingly causing rolling blackouts. The state-owned energy company Eskom provides 90 percent of the country's electricity. The blackouts and "load-shedding" are caused by an aging fleet of coal-fired plants that are continuously breaking down due to lack of maintenance, years of underinvestment, and systematic corruption. Eskom warned then-president Nelson Mandela's administration in 1998 that unless new and more sophisticated power plants were built immediately and infrastructure was upgraded, the electrical grid "would begin imploding within a decade." Between 2009 and 2018, multibillion-dollar contracts to build new power stations were awarded fraudulently to ANC-linked companies. The power plants are today largely dysfunctional, having been poorly constructed and filled with equipment that doesn't work. This is caused by the rampant fraud and corruption.
There were 104 confirmed cases of fraud and corruption registered with the South African Police Service over the year to March 2022, according to the energy company's financial statements. In November 2022, Eskom announced that police arrested two subcontractors for coal and diesel theft. Consequently, the people suffer at the hands of incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats.
In addition to the problems plaguing the state-run power company, the state-run railway system is dysfunctional. The system, called Transnet, is in such bad shape due to years of government underinvestment and corruption that companies are having to turn to alternate transport systems, like trucking goods to Mozambique. This is a catastrophe for South Africa's mining sector, which cannot get goods to export terminals on the coast. As metals, gems, and minerals account for most of South African exports, the state's failure to fix the transport system is having a downward effect on the entire economy. The South African Post Office and South African Airways have collapsed. And although the flag carrier has restarted some flights, private couriers and airlines have largely stepped into the breach.
There has been an onslaught of attacks on whites in the country. "Poor Whites" has become South Africa's "New Subclass." These are white families who have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty as a result of the policy of "affirmative action" — that is, preferential treatment for blacks. Living in total, abject poverty, this destitute group is rarely discussed or acknowledged but is increasing in size. The people survive in informal settlements away from the public eye, mostly in tents and hovels.
South Africa's National Assembly passed legislation on Sept. 28 that would allow the government to seize land without paying the owners, a practice known as "expropriation without compensation." It also passed new government rules that will make it nearly impossible for business owners to hire whites or Indians in the country. Controversial affirmative action policies mean blacks take precedence over whites in the job market.
Then there are the murders. The brutal murder of two elderly people outside Ohrigstad once again highlights the cruelty of violent crime in South Africa. They were set on fire while still alive after being tortured. The major forms of violence against whites are "farm attacks" (vandalism) and "farm murders." In 2023, there were 117 farm attacks and 35 farm murders. In one case, attackers chanted "kill the Boer" before stabbing a female with a spear after beating her with a bolt-cutter and lead pipes. In this case, the perpetrators were apprehended, but that is not usually the case. Ninety-five percent of farm attacks and murders are unsolved. And it is not just crime against whites. South Africa suffers from 74 murders and over 100 rapes per day.
Economic destruction, racism, violence: how does this all happen? Why is this nation heading to collapse?
The meltdown in South Africa is not a natural disaster or a random fluke. It is a choice.
South Africa was the first modern nation to be (re)founded on the anti-white principles of Critical Race Theory, and now it is reaping the results of that choice. South Africa did everything that is being done in America right now. As a diverse multiethnic, multilingual society, South Africa has followed almost every prescription embraced by the globalist ruling class.
It is suffering a severe brain drain. Outward immigration to countries like the U.K., Australia and the United States has risen significantly over the past decade because of the untenable situation.
Remember the power plants that don't work? The country has two expensive, botched power plants because Hitachi's African subsidiary secured contracts based on black empowerment criteria rather than actual expertise. Eskom has problems with coal supply because it gave favoritism to black-owned mining companies and even pushed foreign firms to divest from the country. The government policy of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has been used as a mechanism for the ANC's "cadre deployment" strategy, in which political loyalty, rather than skills or even race, comes first, second, and third. BEE is one of many onerous costs of business that the biggest, well-established firms can bear while their up-and-coming competition is eliminated. This creates a winner-take-all economy while the sum of it all shrinks. About half of South Africa's population of about 60 million lives in poverty and receives at least one monthly welfare payout. About a third of the country's workforce is unemployed.
South Africa is now a failed state. We cannot let this happen to the United States. There is still time.
