The following essay was left in our comments section a few weeks ago. There is also an appended amendment to her original remarks; thus it is best to read her report in its entirety.
The point of view of this citizen of Karoo, South Africa is in opposition to those who urge people like her to leave. Her attitude — pragmatic and realistic — shows another way of viewing what is happening in her country. What she says allows for a third way, one beyond the “leave or die” picture painted by some.
I found links to most of the people, organizations, etc., that she names. Since her knowledge is first-hand she is not likely to agree with everything at those links, but I know very little about South Africa beyond what I see in the MSM; thus it is up to our commenter/reporter to judge the accuracy of their information. The latest link I could find to the agricultural economy was from last year. There are further links from that page to newer reports, but both the older and newer essays discuss the deleterious effect of an ongoing and severe drought plaguing South Africa. The rain — or lack of it — falls on the just and the unjust alike; a drought is harmful across the spectrum of political opinion.
No doubt the writer will be interested to read differing points of view from others those who know South Africa well. She herself has reread some of things she wrote and has an addendum, sent in a subsequent email. You will find the addendum below the main body of the essay, asterisk appended.
Since this is a charged subject a reminder for those who choose to respond in the comments: no matter what your opinion, state it courteously. The public square’s greatest lack today is mutual civility. At Gates of Vienna we will continue to maintain the old standards.
You are the only site anywhere to quote the Transvaal Agricultural Union. Afriforum is South Africa’s main right-wing group which supports farmers and farming communities.
I have a smallholding in a small Afrikaans farming community in the Karoo and when a (white) municipal manager stole about $50,000 from the coffers a couple of years ago, Afriforum [was] the one to take up the case for us legally and at the end they sent someone with some moral clout down to the coastal idyll where Mr Crook spends most of his time, and persuaded him to give the money back, which he did.
So while the TAU is clearly affiliated with the AWB, the nazi-types here, and has no platform at all, Afriforum behaves impeccably and its political affiliate is the Freedom Front, also condemned as a right-wing fascist group but in truth nothing of the sort.
Otherwise, I don’t know what the vibe in Joburg is like right now because I can’t stand the taste of exhaust fumes that settles in the throat and yes the ever-present threat of smash-and-grab artists is also bad for my health, but I was up for 3 weeks last year and as ever people are wonderful and smiling and tough and on a lot fewer antidepressants than the Swedes or Yanks for that matter.
But there is no doubt that the Soros-funded agitators are here and having a field day within the idiotic community that styles itself the “intelligentsia”. This week TUKS, one of two Afrikaans language universities and the one in the erstwhile Transvaal, capitulated to demands and promised to switch all lectures over to English, thereby putting the same restrictions on Afrikaans students the old government put on Africans. That’s what sparked the riots in ’76 and played a pivotal role in the events leading up to 1994.
I believe the angels cry when history repeats itself so closely because as a Christian I know that victims who proclaim their innocence before G[o]d know their worth to Him and step into their power and this is ever the challenge. That has ever been my prayer for South Africa. Victims who can’t see fit to realise this become perps, as we know. And we know that the purpose of the Soros evil is to foster this sentiment everywhere in direct attacks on our Lord.
For all the right-wing condemnation of the old ANC and Mandela because of their links to soviet communism, Mandela, Luthuli and the old Mbeki understood the Christian principle and in the early days, there was hope it would prevail. It’s worth reading the freedom charter* in this respect. What they didn’t understand was that under no circumstances are Africans fit to lead in this age. They simply do not have the fortitude, eatheric structures built up through generations exposed to the horrors and the cross.
I don’t care if any leftie says this is eugenics; it’s not. Hardy plants are adapted to life on earth. Hardy conscious beings are adapted towards psychic mastery on earth. And as a hardy conscious human being, I am under no illusions that human yearning for self-determination and freedom trumps reason and you’d be surprised at how many ordinary black South Africans have a clear-eyed view of this too, and there is humility and, settled into the heart, it is like steel that might just protect all of us going forward.
In fact, western governments weren’t ready to let go of their African assets when black nationalism started to rise and these naive young men were sitting ducks for the Commies in the greatest tradition of tragedy. An ageing Mandela was more duck sport when he signed up with the globalists at Davos in 1997 and the ANC at least tried with its succession management, putting the anointed, Thabo Mbeki, through the paces at [the] London School of Economics.
Unfortunately the western forces attempting to guide South Africa were themselves guided by the ideals of socialism. While it’s true that the country is a nightmare to do business in and people are fatalistic about violence, which is quite normal in terms of human history, the fact remains that there are far more opportunities here than anywhere in the West. I run two small businesses with ease. The only business spam I get is from the US. I haven’t bothered to register my companies and I don’t pay tax. I don’t want an empire, so flying under the radar is easy. I can’t stand the idea of all that paperwork.
Thus [any] comment recommending people leave the country needs to come with a caveat. What if you don’t want to go to Silicon Valley with all the lefties? What if you don’t want to work at McDonalds and vote for Bernie Sanders?
The Daily Mail ran a piece recently on some eighty “white squatter camps”. These are the people who were protected under the previous government. Sheltered post office work for idiots. I feel nothing for those people. And a fabulously entrepreneurial Zulu friend rolls up her window when she sees them begging on the streets and tells her children, “You see those people, you don’t give them money. They had their chance when their people ran the government, now it’s your turn. Your job is to take advantage of every opportunity you have and make a success of your life.” Thandi knows the time is short and she tends to invest in land.
But a lot of white South Africans are really smart, like Jewish smart. Africa will always need whites to run their businesses and whites who plan on staying have a fiery spirit. There’s no future for people who can’t navigate intelligently and who aren’t tough, squeamish about paying bribes, etc. There’s the sad picture of former zim farmers sitting in miserable flats in England and there [are] farmers who laughed at the invaders, shook their hands, said, “Come bhuti, I will slaughter you a cow”; [they] delivered a bakkie-load of beer crates to the places that matter. They live relatively safely on their farms, the fear of that council flat looming large in their minds.
It doesn’t take much if you know what you’re doing and perhaps if Reagan’s statesmanship extended to this kind of savvy, things might have been different. It’s the only thing that could have made a difference. I had lunch with a dear friend last week who had a fabulous Christmas holiday. She flew to meet her (newish) hubby off the rig in Aberdeen and enjoyed the festivities in Edinburgh before whisking him off to try on a pair of skis in France for the first time in his 62 years. Then they did a bit of roadtripping and flew out of Vienna. I was keen to ask her how she found things.
(I have also been grilling all the European tourists the past couple of months, but that’s another story…)
She had a brother who died when she was a teenager [whom] she speaks about often and I wasn’t finished with my first counterjihad left sentence when she interrupted and told me that her brother had some comic book when she was a kid all about how a one-world government took over and used the Muslim Arabs as foot soldiers to torture and kill everyone, back in the early ’80s. She’s a very stylish doting grandmother with kids who, if they’re not pitching city-wide wi-fi network development ideas to the city of Cape Town, they’re starting a sort of pan-African uber in the sky. She runs a decor business and hubby’s vast property portfolio and suffers fools never, and there are a lot of people living incredible lives like hers in these parts.
She looked me in the eye and said, “you know, we South Africans think we’re so backward in so many ways, but compared to the Europeans we have our heads screwed on straight.”
Thanks, Sally, for showing up to tell us how things are for you in South Africa. The MSM will never ever tell us this kind of truth. Their worldview is about black revenge against evil white people when in fact, things are far more complicated — except perhaps for the ANC. But nuance, ambiguity, faith, and shades of right and wrong don’t sell. Or so they think.
And here is Sally’s second communication about life in South Africa. She offered to re-write her thoughts to include this revision, but I opted to go with her first vision and to add her further thoughts as an amendment. It’s good to see someone take in new information and change their point of view based on that:
| * | Okay, so I have just read the Freedom Charter and the comments on individual rights I thought were there are missing. It reads like The Communist Manifesto, enough to scare the pants off any right-thinking patriot anywhere. So that’s dead wrong in my post.
What Mandela did that worked for the country was that he came out of jail and started to speak about forgiveness and reconciliation. And he walked the talk, famously going to visit the widow of the man who locked him up. That resonated with South Africans who, to this day, have little idea that the Communist ideas of the ANC have caused the mayhem and have no tradition or understanding of the magic of the market, which is totally alien to their tribal cultures. That is the idea that the ANC’s apartheid-blaming rhetoric and foreign agitators have destroyed. It’s really what made Mandela the famous. Otherwise … below I a quote from a piece at Fortune magazine that sums up the situation. Best, Sally |
From “The Six Principles that Made Nelson Mandela a Renowned Leader”:
…Mandela faced big questions after his release from prison: What to do with the faltering economy? For most of his life, Mandela was a socialist and even a Marxist. He was suspicious of free markets and private ownership, given the abuses he witnessed. He said, “The nationalization of the mines, banks and monopoly industries is the policy of the ANC [African National Congress], and a change or modification of our views in this regard is inconceivable.”
But then he came to learn what decades of socialism had done to the states of the former Soviet Union. His thinking took a sharp turn when he met leaders of the Communist Parties of China and Vietnam who were striving to privatize state enterprises. “They changed my views altogether,” Mandela told a biographer.
Thanks for posting. I am always curious about unfiltered news from SA. What happens there today is what is in store tomorrow for the rest of the world.
Whilst this is a very interesting article. Is it a complete view of South African attitudes?. The author professes a Christian faith,yet openly admits to stealing from the state.(pay no taxes) Is this being Christian,when denying others the ability to gain by your good fortune? Jesus said”give unto ceasar……etc.
Again , the author relishes in the discomfort of others rather than showing compassion as Jesus would have ( the story of the mother teaching her children to ignore the plight of the poor) . This is not displaying forgiveness. Jesus told us that no matter how many times we were hurt, to turn the other cheek. ( seventy times seven)
I am offended that this person proclaims to be a follower of Jesus.
And as some humble advice to all who question what I say follow the guide WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY/DO
Many people don’t pay taxes since they believe the tax rate has long since become extortionate. We pay ours, but not out of Christian belief – simply because the IRS is part of a thug regime who can ruin your life.
I saw no evidence that she “relishes” the discomfort of the poor. She is showing that they reaped what they sowed.
You’ve conflated forgiveness and compassion. If someone breaks into your home countless times and is never brought to justice for leaving you penniless, your children maimed or killed, let’s see how long your limit is.
Oh wait…this Christian “offends” you. Time for you to haul out your own forgiveness calculator and start saying you’ve forgiven her for offending you.
Jesus would tell you to take the huge piece of lumber out of your own eye.
Dymphna . . . Bless you I was about to write and state the same ideas and remarks ( not with the same level of strength and clarity as yours) as a response to Rod when I saw your reply. Invasion of his house and terrorizing his kids would be enough to take some “drastic, telling and lesson-giving measures.
Reaped what they sowed?
Hardly, these are people who were in middle to low paying jobs, but who nonetheless got through life honestly and without resorting to crime.
Now they’ve been deemed useless by the regime and people like this woman says it’s their own fault for believing the rhetoric of the National Party that life would continue as before but with black political involvement.
It sounds like she’s trying to distance herself from her former countrymen in order to curry favour with the larger black population.
I find it infuriating that these white destitutes, are compared to black communities living in poor conditions under apartheid.
These people were educated, the blacks back then were not, largely thanks to people like Mandela telling them to boycott the school system.
Those black camps were better provisioned by the apartheid government than the current white camps are.
These white poor today have skills applicable to the workforce, but because they’re white they can’t get jobs, it’s disgusting to blame them for being out of work due to government racism and the indifference of their own people like the female [redacted] that wrote how clever she is.
A lot of assertions and accusations but not much in the way of sources to buttress your opinions.
I would like to see a cogent case made for your claims, but what you’ve written here fails to do that.
This is essentially a modern post-revolutionary story by one person. I would be interested in seeing first-person accounts of stories from those who form another facet of experience.
The post-colonial story in South Africa is multi-faceted…with enough hatreds on both sides to stretch from here to eternity.
The point i was making about the taxes not being paid, was that by denying the government (people) income then how can the citizens move forward through benefits if people refuse to contribute. If you do not like what the government does with your money change the government As far as forgivness is concerned I have nothing to forgive. This is the way she chooses to live her life ,so be it,but please do not profess Christianity and then openly boast of how smart she is
Rod, a boyhood friend had his parents shot dead one Christmas morning in the Cape Province by four black youths. He was wounded but survived. The youths “escaped” from jail after a while and that was that. Farm murders number in the thousands and involve unspeakable brutality.
Another friend had her house broken into and all her furniture stolen.
Another boyhood friend was run off the road and nearly died.
All these take place in a climate of government indifference or complicity. This government is stupified with communist economic thinking and the country is infected with satanic Soros subversives.
This is the government and the economic climate in which good Christians should in your view present themselves naively to the tax and regulatory authorities to announce “I have a functioning business here that you surely will want to investigate.”
You have zero insight into what it’s like to operate where rule of law means little and the state is rapacious and delusional.
You have zero insight into what it’s like to operate where rule of law means little and the state is rapacious and delusional.
And the rule of law is disappearing as fast at the top as it is down near the bottom. An unholy alliance in which the underclass will be tossed out the window of the moving train as soon as their usefulness is done.
Ive lost 13 friends and associates through murder in the last 15 years including 3 neighbours in January and March last year . They broke into my house 6 times in 2 years , twice while I was inside . I managed to avoid the grim reaper so far . The police said they will return later for further investigation for evidence , fingerprints etc but never did . In two cases they didnt have a vehicle available and another case no fuel .
I do not turn the other cheek but grab an asses jawbone and, like Samson , do what needs doing . This is not a place for sissies where brutality and cruelty reaches levels even horror movies may not show . Its soul destroying . To those who think we can pack up and go consider the facts that if you are white and dont have a very highly desired profession overseas , then you dont have a chance of leaving . Most lefty governments dont want skilled people in large numbers because they pose a threat to the new socialist order they are imposing on the west and mass white influx would be racial discrimination to Syrians ? Mexicans ? etc.
So much as feeding a corrupt government , you have to be insane to pay taxes to a thief who is stealing you blind on all other fronts .
Most of the political youth are still running on the “liberation before education “while up to 80 % are unemployed . The ANC have emptied all state coffers and most pension schemes . Now they are increasing taxes on the working population . So we end up with 5% of the population paying income tax to pay for the 90% unemployed or low income earners . They have killed the economy with their socialism and corruption. The ruling party lacks any education in the departments they are in charge of so it collapses . Two years ago the whole northern half of the country received no school books and we are now number 143 out of 143 for education , even Yemen and Somali beat us . And it doesnt stop.
That is amazing. Soon the government will, like the Bolsheviks described by Solzhenitsyn, go after the “wreckers,” the remaining competent technicians whose expertise showed their new (often peasant) masters to be thieves and fools.
What fools we were to assume that Western civilization would always move on an upward-sloping trajectory. In fact, we “progressed” down into some dark scene from a Bergman movie with dialog about two-headed calves and 7-Up.
I’m offended that followers of Jesus still admit openly they’re offended. Whenever I’m offended I go for a walk because it’s so bleeding obvious offense is for Muslims and not free men. Otherwise, the tax issue is tricky, but it comes from my heart. Caeser is the insurance guy and the profit motive, even the traffic cop and road tolls. Otherwise, I pay 14% ValueAdded Tax on everything plus fuel and other hidden taxes and I prefer to give charity privately rather than pay the government to pay girls to have babies. I would come out square anyway, I’m hardly rich, so it’s just a lot of admin and a waste of energy and that’s mostly what I object to. I certainly don’t give to those pathetic fired white post office workers. My courier is a star. These people are just another example of why the government should never fund losers and take away free will. I’m so sorry that the fact that they’re white offends your sensibilities. I saw the sunday paper today, and 3/4ths of the faces on the promotions page in the business section are white. Bad PR but a regular fact of the universe. Hell, I’d never have had the amazing career opportunities stateside I’ve have had here because of the stiff competition from the eurocentric economy. I’d have had to have worked a LOT harder and I know it. We have it easy that way and sensationalism about homeless white south africans won’t change that. Fact is, Afrikaans supremacism also had it’s bleedout … in a particularly stoic Calvinist way. American photographer Roger Ballen, depressingly, captures the mood. Rise up, shine … and get used to it. http://www.rogerballen.com/asylum-of-the-birds/
Sally,
With all due respect, I have read all of your communications several times, and I have very little idea of the points you’re trying to get across.
I think you’re saying that whites can live in South Africa with a fair chance of prosperity as long as they’re willing to smile at the government officials and bribe them.
You’re a little fuzzy on the safety aspect. You avoid Johannesburg because of the crime, so can I assume that you exclude whites living in Johannesburg from your picture? Or perhaps, you include the whites who manage to prosper and do not have to live “under the radar” like your fabulously wealthy friend.
You also exclude the whites living in the squatter’s camps. You have no sympathy for them because they were dumb enough to rely on government jobs. I suppose you hold no opinion on the assertion that they are systematically discriminated against when they apply for jobs because they live in the camps. This is described in the article you linked. So, they have to suffer from systematic discrimination because they made the mistake of not having been entrepreneurs who offered bribes. And you don’t care.
One thing you don’t discuss is long-term safety. You can manage to stay afloat and “relatively” safe because the government officials are satisfied with a bribe. What happens if they decide they want your property as well? Do you have any recourse through the government or courts…especially after Mandala dies. I’ve read that the ANC hotbrands are waiting for his death so they can implement their plans of racial dominance and confiscation.
What is your take on the situation in Zimbabwe? You have a black nationalist dictator orchestrating the systematic looting of white farmers and property. And the stolen lands are not even being used for the profit of the owners. They are simply being returned to community pasture lands, because the looters are too stupid and undisciplined to work for the future.
If the situation in South Africa becomes like Zimbabwe, do you still think you can live under the radar? Do you think you will escape the attention of sociopathic black South Africans who know they have a good chance of keeping your property?
I think you are saying the immediate future in South Africa for whites who are willing to smile and pay bribes, and not be too successful, and who care not in the least for other whites, is comfortable. You don’t seem to be concerned with any long term future, so someone with young kids might want to look at predictions from someone other than you…but then, you give no predictions, just impressions.
Mandela has been dead for a while. Did you mean Zuma?
No. You caught me in a mistake. I admit it.
Paying taxes is the right thing to do. However South Africans of all colours are fed up with the ruling elites feeding at the trough and lining their pockets, while the poor get poorer and angrier. And as they become angrier, the president’s scapegoat becomes “the Whites” and “apartheid”…which is setting the stage for conflict. Billions of Rands of taxes are lost every year due to corruption, and president Zuma spent R250million from state coffers for upgrades on his personal residence…A tax revolt then becomes quite an appealing idea!
Would you have thought a tax revolt against the apartheid government would have been ok even though it meant breaking the law? Do you think it’s ok that Whites in SA have to pay tax when they are being oppressed through racist laws? White South Africans are basically like dhimmis now!
And Rod, you are even more qualified than the Pope to question someone’s commitment to Christ?
Christian faith isn’t just a checkbox of items in a book that culminates in a socialist compliance exercise, you know?
You use the current Pope as the highest authority on Christ and then go on to criticize Rod for equating Christianity with socialism? Misguided at best, more like deluded.
I’m not jumping in to defend Rod, it’s just that your comment stands alone as a oxymoron. Specifically, in case you hadn’t noticed Pope Francis IS a socialist of the worst stripe and has a large number of devout Catholics (I’m not one) up in arms over his reversal of historic church doctrine. See Ann Barnhardt’s scathing criticisms, for instance.
A friend of mine who has relatives from Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and South Africa has told me of the Afrikaners’ fierce desire to stay in South Africa, that the country is incredibly beautiful and it is “home.” He told me this in response to an notion I floated to him a few years ago about repatriation to Holland of Boers who are facing persecution, oppression and possibly genocide.
This notion was conceived of after reading accounts of the widespread murder of Boers at three times the rate as other South Africans (that some attribute to a deliberate agitprop campaign by the ANC government). The brutal attacks on former Rhodesians by Mugabe’s War Veterans in Zimbabwe, the near annihilation of the small white community and the utter devastation of the country’s agricultural sector, seemed to be a harbinger of the things to come for the rural white South Africans.
News about South Africa is sparse now that Apartheid is history and Mandela’s has passed from the scene; it’s a complete, tidy narrative for the Progressives as is (nothing else to see here, move along). Honest reportage about the goings-on in South Africa is mainly left to ex-pats, e.g. Ilana Mercer, and not to be expected from a media of illiberal Leftist with their situational morality and hierarchy of victimhood (whites need not apply). So there is great concern by many outsiders as to the welfare of and future for the descendants of the early Dutch colonists, particularly the Boers (in this sense, literally the farmers, the rural folk), now a targeted and suppressed minority in the nation at large.
This concern engenders some fanciful notions like re-emigration that may not be appreciated nor acceptable to those it is conceived for. A wholly understandable and reasonable reaction (I know I don’t want to be repatriated to Europe, even before it had become Eurabia).
Craig –
I’ve been to Cape Town and the Western Cape and can confirm it is a beautiful area with a lot to offer. Terrific food and wine at reasonable prices as well. I did not see or suffer any serious problems with crime, though there were an inordinate number of vagrants for the fairly well-to-do area I stayed in.
Agitation against the white population is an ongoing problem. There are a number of popular songs that advocate the murder of whites outright. Of course the racist ANC-led government ignores these hate-speech anthems and the resultant crimes.
I remember all the wailing and gnashing of teeth when Malcolm Muggeridge commented years ago that ‘the white bully boys will be replaced by the black bully boys’ in South Africa.
Didn’t fit with the ‘complete, tidy narrative’ you mention.
Thanks for this entry, I’m a german woman from Leipzig with a southafrican husband of dutch descent, and we both appreciated the truth in every word expressed by Mrs. Sally.
Just as a matter of history, the ‘white’ tribe of Africa (the Afrikaaners) seettled the Cape Area from 1652, the tribes that now rule South Africa (mainly Xhota) did not arrive in the area until the early 1800’s. Unfortunately this is not a history that the political left wants to be cognisant of.
Apartheid was not nice, but it did keep things stable, as Europe is going to find in the next few years. Afrikaaners had the same problem(s) of economic migration, they too needed the labour but found the culture clash difficult, ‘separation’ was their answer and they formalized it in 1948 when they won power for the first time.
If “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, then the communism of the ANC is an abject failure compared to the reasonably successful ‘apartheid’ of the Afrikaner
Nationalists.
I had a plot in RSA for a while, it was absolute freedom, but it was very difficult to pay tax, and nobady cared if one did not, I made several attempts but gave up in the end.
MC-
Another important piece of history the Left has sent down the memory hole are the Barbary Pirate Wars the US was involved in during its early years of existence.
Apartheid has left me with the understanding that the wisdom of Solomon is needed during these times of war. No need to advertise what you’re doing. That’s the lesson.
The proof that Apartheid wasn’t a good idea is that… it failed.
South Africa is without doubt one of THE most beautiful countries I’ve had the good fortune to visit. I first went there in 2009 and moved there from the UK in 2010. It is going through turbulent times as most would have probably predicted. Vast swathes of the population were kept uneducated under the Apartheid regime and yet today I hear people moaning about how frustrated they are with uneducated blacks who vote ANC, who else should they vote for? Another thing I find ironic is how Afrikaner’s cling on to this staunch Christian identity, yet many held (hold) blacks in complete contempt. How is that Christian? A little hypocritical I would have thought, but then isn’t all religion.
A few urban myths that have done the rounds in S.A ever since the Apartheid regime fell:
• All whites would be slaughtered (Uhuru) in 1994 under a ANC government
• At the end of the world cup all whites would be slaughtered (blacks would no longer have anything to look forward to)
• As soon as Madiba dies all whites would be killed
Now before anyone jumps up and down calling me a lefty (which I can assure you I’m not) you have to get things in perspective. Whites during Apartheid lived the dream, but only on the back of the poor. These people are still harking back to what they think of as the good old days. Whites still hold most of the economic clout in S.A today and that wont change anytime soon. It’s a wonderful country, yes it has issues, but show me a land that doesn’t. If you haven’t been do yourself a favour and visit, you will not regret it. For all South Africa’s ills I’d rather live there than either the UK or Europe which is about to sink under the misogynistic tsunami of Doctors and Technicians making there way to the gravy train.
South Africa is a land of immigrants. The Khoi and San people were the indigenous people, and all the other people who live in SA, including the black tribes who migrated there from other parts of Africa, are immigrants. The whole idea of “apartheid” was “separate development” with a final aim of each Black tribe having their own independent homeland to preserve their own cultures and languages (similar to how Swaziland and Lesotho are countries within SA except that I think these 2 were British protectorates while the other homelands were still under the umbrella of SA). These homelands were in the same areas where the different tribes had already settled, although when looking at the land surface area the amount of land was unfairly divided with Whites getting the lion’s share. In these homelands, Blacks could vote for their own leaders. At that time in world history, I think most nations throughout the world lived separately from each other. Interestingly Lucas Mangope of Bophutatswana wanted that homeland to maintain independence during the transition to the “new” South Africa and a coup was then instigated against him by the parties of Mandela and de Klerk so that Bophutatswana would become part of SA). It is important to remember that taxes of White South Africans footed the bill for the development of the black homelands, building hospitals, schools, and international standard universities for them where there literally was only wild bush before. I would not say that Blacks were denied an education by the Whites. I would say a significant factor is that the Black population ballooned due to Western medicine and agriculture and the rate of development of infrastructure was not able to keep up with the rate of population growth, thereby levels of poverty among the Black population increased. In 1900 there were approx 1million Whites and 3million Blacks in SA, whereas 100 years later there were approx 5million Whites and almost 45million Blacks, and Whites shouldered the burden of most of the taxes even though they were a minority. The schools in the black townships had the notorious Bantu education, but remember that Blacks had not built their own schools and you can’t expect Whites to be able to set up a suitable curriculum for all 9 Black languages in SA when those are not languages that Whites are fluent in. In fact, even to this day, the ANC government has not tried to implement such a system. The standard of education for public schools is now among the worst in the world, and definitely far worse than the Bantu education during apartheid with which Black South Africans could get into university to become professionals such as doctors, nurses, lawyers, etc. What people had an issue with was that each race group attended their own institutions due to segregation. Although there were a few exceptions: Mandela studied law at Wits University during apartheid, and the private schools also became non-racial during the 1980’s when it was still the apartheid era. Whereas nowadays there is a racial quota system, but White students with A aggregates don’t get a place in medical school while Black students with C aggregates can get in just because of their skin colour. This is because Blacks must make up 80% of students while Whites and Coloureds must make up only 8%, and Indians must make up only 2% due to the ANC’s social engineering of society to reflect the racial demographics to achieve what they call a “non-racial” and “equal” society.
Please don’t get me wrong, the racism of the apartheid system and the forced removals of people was wrong and it has left SA with a lot of scars which will last for many generations to come. I am merely trying to explain how complicated the situation was. As you can see, my comment is very long and I only addressed the topic of education!
Thanks for your information, AM.
There is no real satisfactory solution to a situation where there are diverse populations, especially when a large proportion of them are low skill, low ability, and low intelligence.
The irritating part of racial treatment, especially apartheid, is that the less powerful group has members whose skills and accomplishments are high, but who are still classified as the minority. It takes no great effort to find a black professional prior to affirmative action, who had to struggle more than whites of the equivalent ability, or who suffered government or professional discrimination.
The removal of blacks in apartheid South Africa to “homelands” they had never even visited, presented a moral dilemma, even apart from the political advantage it gave leftist revolutionaries. The individual was being treated as a group member and dislocated to possibly worse situations, through no fault of his own.
Do you see a long-range stability for South Africa, with obviously deteriorating government and professional sectors? The use of racial quotas, rather than merit, guarantees in the next generation, there will be no quality public or private services. One of the features of an economically-illiterate leadership is, they cannot see the consequences of unlimited redistribution and confiscation of wealth. They also cannot see the benefit of maintaining individual rights, when it provides an inconvenience for government bureaucrats.
“Whites during apartheid lived the dream, but only on the back of the poor” – this is one of those stereotypical views which I would like to oppose. It still depended on each person’s own circumstances, e.g. education level, single-parent households, etc. During apartheid there were also poor white communities. I think the main reasons why whites reminisce about the apartheid days is the extremely low levels of violent crime in the old South Africa, the fact that services were well run and of a good standard, and due to the current racist anti-White laws. I would say those are valid reasons! It is really mind-boggling that some Europeans take for granted the freedom they have in their countries, and that they want to import a whole lot of problems through mass immigration from the 3rd world! Why change a well functioning and prosperous society? If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! Ahhhhh, too late now, thanks to the traitors Merkel, Blair, et al……who have set the ball rolling. It’s only once you lose your freedom that you realize what you once had!
Violent crime might have been low in white areas, but this wasn’t generally true.
An Indian South African friend tells me that it was quite bad in the Apartheid area as well, though he says that it’s way worse now. The way he put it, under Apartheid, you’d get arrested for going into the wrong area. Now, he says, you get killed. The pragmatic in him questions the improvement.
I was shocked to hear a non-white say such a thing, I have to admit.
quite correct that the Nguni people were not in the very southern regions of the country when my ancestors settled there in order to establish a way station for shipping commerce between Europe and the East Indies. There was no nation as the Zulu in existance either.
Much has happened since then to produce the current state of affairs, but never let it be said that apartheid was in any way justifiable.
Trouble is that everyone pretty much arrived at the same time. The Zulus were right there waiting for an enemy to coalesce them on the Natal coast, where the living is easy, and had been roaming around the Pongola River since the 15th century, and the Xhosa were already being pushed south towards the Kai (note the language differentiation). But the British only made contact with Xhosa first at Somerset East, well inland and east of the Sundays River. Otherwise there were “only” Khoi San in the Cape for sure. The white man, in this context, probably has claim to the western cape, and half the eastern Cape and the Northern Cape to the Orange River. The Free State was mostly empty following the Mkefane but there were plenty of Sotho stragglers and the Tshwane were right there heading south from Botwana, never mind the Herero and other tribes heading south from the west. There’s plenty archaeological sites in Limpopo and Mpumalanga showing bantu presence going back to the 13th century, even earlier, the site at Mapungubwe most notably, Shangaan and Tsonga and Venda didn’t pop out of nowhere … and obviously there was lots of activity in Zimbabwe. It hardly matters since the ANC began busing Xhosa down to Cape Town post 1994. What do they say? Just showing up is 9 10ths of life.
There is this bit of info that I picked up on but have not been able to verify — that Shaka had made a journey to the Eastern Cape and been mightily impressed by the British garrison, and was thus inspired to form his fighting force, training young men to fight rather than going through initiation and circumcision ordeals. This then was the beginning of the Zulu nation as we know it to be.
The Zulu pride themselves in being pure Nguni while viewing the Xhosa as a “mixed race” (yes I know….it seems a bit racist) since the Xhosa have bred with the Khoi san and adopted some of the language (click sounds). A language which is the oldest of all languages, belonging to the San, who appear to have been pressured into inhabiting the desert regions by the southwards encroachment of the Bantu people.
The San could migrate freely, north and south following the seasons, before the intrusion of others, that is………maybe there was not much conflict when the white people first arrived, since the San were not sedentary……… It gets cold enough in the Cape to make it a place fairly well suited to European stock.
My family used to own the land which is now Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town, and great Grandfather worked as an engineer building the railway line to Kimberley. Grandfather fought alongside Jan Smuts (not in the Boer war, but in WW1) then was picked by Jannie to be deputy governor general of the SA Reserve Bank.
Crazy place that SA is, I was called a f#*king Englishman by the nazis who used to run the country and the defence force. They were the ones who foreign people like to label as “Afrikaaners” although the malutto people in the Cape (Cape coloureds) are more likely the original Afrikaaners.
I do not recant from the opinion which I posted earlier,as the point I was attempting to make,is that hatred and revenge are no way forward . And that log in my eye is the claim by some to follow Christ. Is not in accordance with his teachings. I thought my post was far more polite than the response I received from Dympna. I am no better than anyone but if I was in conversation with the people mentioned in the post I would have verbalized my sentiments directly to them.DARKNESS ALLOWS NO LIGHT
Hi Rod, I hope i was clear that paying my government is like paying the mafia. I work at break even and make the best of it because it’s not worth growing a business. I’m at subsistence. Just like the USA and the world, South Africa has never recovered from the 2008 hit. Many young black south africans, poised to make the jump into business, were pushed down. I know, they were my potential clients. After this conversation, my refusal to support governments that support the global, institutional rape is hardened wholesale. Do you not realise how easy it is to manage economies? We are all being managed at breakeven so the lefties don’t get up in arms for the wrong reason and band together with the right to give the middle finger to the banks. Indeed, darkness allows no light.
The situation in South Africa is not about religion.
Sally, thanks for a interesting perspective on our dear country, also a thanks for GoV to place this article.
I enjoyed the article broadly but have couple of questions/concerns;
1) Sally what is in it for you to link TAU with the AWB? My impression is that the TAU is a vibrant and growing union, whilst the AWB is fairly obsolute since ET died, that is obviously as far as I know, but please fil me in if you know otherwise. When you write from the Karoo, why would you want to undermine the Transvaal Agricultural Union? TAU is not oposing Afriforum as far as I know. Like you I also enjoy Afriforum at work. (I have to point out that I am not affiliated with either AWB or TAU, I speak only as an observer)
2) It may come as as a shock to some, but I do not share your regard for Mandela. The whole ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ campaign during the late eighties, driven by Church of England and demonic European liberals and his Idolising from the MSM rang enough alarm bells for me not to waste too much admiration for that soul. Let alone the spectacular international bandwagon that followed after his prison release. I could go on but let me get to the point here, isnt Jacob Zuma a much better example of your notion that Africans are not ‘fit’ to rule complex modern nations? I mean I can hardly think of a better example. Mandela couldnt put a foot wrong because he was carried by the whole world, but Zuma, he is showing us why Aricans are not ‘fit’ to rule (historians will write books about that, I do not have the space for that here). A bigger question however is- who comes after Zuma?
3) My last comment, I disagree with your point that ALL of the poor whites in the white sqatter camps previously benefitted from Post Office or other government jobs, maybe some, but I do think they did matter to the previous regime, unfortunately their skins are way too pale to benefit from the current racist ANC welfare state. Either everyone, black and white get state support, or no-one. I do not support unmeritted state handouts, but if it really has to be given, then at least do it fairly.
Please GoV, keep up your good work but don’t forget/ neglect SA, the West might just learn a couple of things of what may still happen to them.
I appreciate your comment about the white squatters camps. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. There are perfectly decent people who work for others, holding down humdrum jobs. And who may feel lost when these jobs disappear for them. Why vilify them or refuse them your understanding?
I am not vilifying anyone. Simply reserving my empathy for the aged, young and disabled. Of all races. Granted, some of these people could be considered mentally disabled, but in fact I didn’t create the world so I don’t get to determine what is upright, healthy and good. I can simply observe it.
The sensitivity towards destitute whites is … Well. I’m not the one alarmed. When I was a kid, I always told my mom I wanted to live in a shack. I think I appreciated the freedom, that they didn’t have to go to school. And you’ll find many of these people live beautiful lives in harmony with their black neighbours, unworried about money, if you could recognise any of that. The surrender and humility and even peace they live in must be profound. I’m not allowed to swear here but if I could, I’d have two words for you moronic vampires now . **** *** and give it a rest.
Hi. It doesn’t seem that TAU does much of anything so if you know more about them then please let me know. Perhaps they work locally. I also don’t have a problem with the AWB per se. They have their place if needs be and I can respect a coherent defence of their principles. But TAU are quoted in regular articles on this site and it gives a skewed perception about how awful South Africa is, which is why I spoke up. I mean really,m encouraging 4 million people to up and leave? Where to?
Perhaps they are trying locally in some areas but AfriForum, as you must know, is doing a superlative job of defending Afrikaans culture, farmers and agriculture. No one I know thinks much of the sites that recount the farm deaths in all their gory detail, because then overseas people think our country is all about that, when in fact, it’s not. Not that I’m opposed particularly to communities deciding to arm themselves against the EFF in the north if that’s what they want to do … it’s just that whites have been getting murdered in South Africa for a long, long time and it’s part of life in Africa. I think if apartheid has taught us anything it’s that there are less chest-beating ways to go about things. I think that if Israelis can take it on the chin, why so can South Africans, and why soon other countries may be in similar situations and the lesson is to always carry on.
Again, I have no sympathy for the white squatters just as i would expect no sympathy if it happened to me. That’s just so much misplaced kindness. I’m not Afrikaans in fact, and yet there are NO English white squatters. That’s because the previous government offered sheltered employment to a small, inevitable minority who should have been given 10ha and R100 back in the day. You know yourself that our economy is filled with entrepreneurial young hipster types starting companies, baking cakes, doing tech, making sausages, employing themselves and all sorts. It takes generations to rehab people who have been “sheltered”. I love that my country has no safety net because it keeps us on our toes. It’s more corporate downsizing pushing people out that AA … but anyway my family has never been government types so we’re immune from whining about that. If you feel sorry for them then by all means go for broke and try to help.
Otherwise … who knows what’s going to happen but if there are any other saffers are like me, we’re now starting to think gee the world’s a mess, we better stay here. And if not now, then soon. And that’s good for us to make the best of things.
“Again, I have no sympathy for the white squatters just as i would expect no sympathy if it happened to me. That’s just so much misplaced kindness.”
Sally. Can you please comment on the theme prominent in the Daily Mail article you linked to, that the squatters frequently apply for jobs and are systematically turned down because they live in the squatter’s camp?
The implication is clearly that they are discriminated against, as well, because they are white.
So, according to you, an unemployed squatter, unable to find work, should lift himself up by his bootstraps and begin his own business. I guess you take the point of view of your Bantu friend: as whites, they had their chance to start their own businesses when employed by the white government. They made the mistake of choosing to not to, and they and their kids are paying the price.
Now, of course, you are choosing to enter the future assuming that you are safe enough, with the combination of bribes and living under the radar. Should we be unsympathetic to you, should your situation come crashing down, and you find yourself at the short end of a racist and predatory government, with your property confiscated, and a police totally indifferent to any crimes committed against you? When you apply for asylum, like the farmers of Rhodesia, we can in good conscience say “you made your choice. Now you live by it.”
I had thought of moving there when I retire. I was always curious to see the country that had nurtured J.R.R. Tolkien, at least in his early youth. From what is described by the article and the replies Cuba would be preferable, sadly.
PS, Soros appears to be gleefully doing the work of the devil around the world, leaving no stone unturned.
https://youtu.be/ZxFAESDVJ5w
“… Whites during Apartheid lived the dream, but only on the back of the poor …”
What you are implying is that the blacks living today are now better off. From everything I have come to understand from reading and talking to people from South Africa that is evidently not the case. Being poor is relative. I am sure that the blacks were poor sixty years ago in comparison to the whites but the blacks of today are surely more poor when comparing their living conditions to those of their ancestors sixty years ago.
The sad fact is that races and cultures are different and have different strengths. I lived in Uganda for two years many moons ago. Older Ugandans expressed their dismay to me that the British had left as their living conditions had been so much better. Equality is merely equal measures of misery.
Excellent post Sally. Just wanted to add to your assertion about southern Africa being home to Europeans before many “Africans” moved there. Probably climatic changes made the Kalahari more passable. Indeed the San people had a good deal going until the physically larger tribes from the center of the continent killed the smaller San. Another group, the Bushmen of the Kalahari, who had lived in Southern Africa for as much as 100,000 years ago, are similar to the San, and may have interbred with them.
Have you seen THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY? It portrays the Bushmen in a VERY idealized way, but it is well worth seeing.
Judenlieber
“… she interrupted and told me that her brother had some comic book when she was a kid all about how a one-world government took over and used the Muslim Arabs as foot soldiers to torture and kill everyone, back in the early ’80s”
Any idea which book this was?