Reader Offer: Life is Wonderful

1. As a teenager I knew South Africa in the days of apartheid and I have been there many times since. Originally apartheid was a voluntary arrangement between the Dutch settlers in the Cape and the tribal elders who were concerned that their young men were leaving their villages in the northern tribal homelands and hanging around in Cape Town (there were no indigenous tribes in the Cape when the settlers arrived) and picking up western habits which they felt would ultimately destroy their traditional way of life, and of course they were absolutely right. It was a way of living together but apart (hence apartheid) which was originally based on mutual cultural respect but due to population pressure ultimately became corrupted into an evil social system enforced by violence.

   In the days of apartheid I travelled illegally through the Transkei and other tribal areas on my motorcycle without a permit and was welcomed warmly wherever I went. The ordinary people seemed generally happy and content despite terrible human rights abuses occurring daily in the more urban areas.

   It would be a fair assumption that the population having been freed from this evil regime should now be much happier but in the many times that I have been there both on holiday and business that is not the impression that I have taken away, in most respects they are worse off than before now that the country is run by madmen like Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (who advocates to his “crew” raping babies as a cure for aids amongst other hideous primitive practices) and now that the prejudice of colour has been replaced by the even more sinister and violently expressed prejudices of historically based inter-tribal hatred.

   It is tempting to see things in terms of black versus white but Africa is never that simple. Whether you like it or not it was the white Africans who built South Africa, that is a fact of history beyond dispute and the total mess that it is now in is no more their fault than the total destruction of Zimbabwe which under white African control was the most productive country on the continent and was traditionally referred to as the bread basket of Africa.

   Zimbabwe enjoyed zero starvation in it’s population before the farms and machinery were seized at gunpoint by Mugabe’s thugs, who instead of continuing to produce the same vast surplus of food that was traditionally generated, left the grain to rot and the machinery to rust despite the fact that they had stolen it and unlike the rightful owners did not have to concern themselves with paying off the bank loans which procured these resources. Sadly it is the same story in South Africa where highly productive businesses taken over by force of law have now been ruined and unemployment is consequently rising.

   I am glad Rory is celebrating the well intentioned efforts of these undoubtedly fine and brave men, but I hope those who attend the event keep the real background situation in perspective.

2. Will Winnie be there? What a bloody awful inheritance. The African disease of mendacity, corruption and brutality is no better exemplified than in the South Africa of today. The only people making fortunes are the crooked ANC.
   Bit like the PLA in China,

3. Charles has far greater knowledge of the country than I. It is a pity the ideals of Mandela never got transmitted beyond him.

4. Shout at the devil………Kill the boer, kill the farmer, and they meant it. Adios South Africa, I will visit no more.

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