Symptoms of Collapse

The big moves in a country such as South Africa capture the headlines.  Moves such as the firing of the Minister of Finance in order to ensure the willing compliance of the incumbent of that post with the corrupt desires of the people steering the country.  Such a move creates a situation in which the replacement of the replacement is lauded as the savior of the country, regardless of how compliant he may have been in the same conditions in the past, when the wash from the world boom was still having an effect in allowing the country to continue to operate, though even at a more gentle rate of decline.

The real incompetence of the Government is brought to light for its citizens when the things that impact them directly and noticeably occur.  The problem with the macroeconomic decline is that a downgrading of Government securities does not hit the voter on the head.  The interest rates increase.  So what?  The Government explains that the world is going through a tough time, and we must share it, but don’t worry, things will improve.  After all, we have our democracy!  However, when the Bryanston Post Office is closed, without warning or notification, all of those voters who rely on it to receive some of their mail – the part that is not stolen by Post Office employees on the search for a quick bonus – are given a direct and pertinent example of what is taking place throughout the country.  The example, after enduring no mail delivery for three months, and then being promised that it will be sorted out ‘soon’, a promise that has been made weekly since the beginning of January, only to find that there is no change, and that the employees who made that promise are becoming discouraged, brings home to those voters, and taxpayers, that the slide of the country to the level of yet another African banana republic is a reality.

While all of this is happening, Jacob Zuma does a walkabout in Pretoria, and boasts afterwards that ‘the country loves the ANC, the people love Jacob Zuma!’  The Deputy State President makes statements that the country is doing well, the Government is fighting corruption, only a day after an admission is made in the Constitutional Court by Zuma’s representatives that he breached his Oath of Office in stealing R246 000 000 from State coffers and then covering it up by subverting the Minister of Police to produce a report absolving him of any liability to repay.  Gwede Mantashe then declares in a TV interview that the ANC has always wanted a formal investigation of the affair, but was prevented from achieving that by the Opposition!  Jacob Zuma declares that the replacement Minister of Finance is better qualified for the job than any other Minister of Finance has been, totally disregarding the fact that the citizens of the town in which the ANC nominated him as Mayor were so enamoured with his performance that they expressed their pleasure by burning down his house!

Against this background, the Marxist-Stalinist new new Minister of Finance is seen as a saviour!  The Press expects that he will suddenly see the light, and make the changes that will set the country back on the road to improvement.  They are already explaining that times will be hard during the recovery period, while Zuma declares in SONA that the ANC will introduce legislation to deprive foreigners of the right to own property, so ensuring the continued reduction of Foreign Direct Investment (down 74% last year!), and further legislation to ensure that White farmers donate (under compulsion) half of their farms to the Black workers, because ‘ownership of land is an important element in making a man free!”, to ensure that agricultural production continues its slide (farmer numbers down from 66 000 in 1994 to 24 000 today, with over 90% of redistributed farms failing).  The anti-White, anti-west rhetoric is being wound up to ensure that racism plays its role in the forthcoming local government elections, and then things will go back to normal, with 80% of the local authorities failing the audit tests for clean governance, SAA being handed another R5 billion in Government guarantees before further cash injections become necessary in order to keep it afloat, so that Zuma and his cronies can plunder it further, more cash being pumped into Eskom to fill the coffers so that the large buddy contracts can be funded, with ‘finders fees’ being paid to the ANC, and more instant billionaires being created amongst the politically elite.  Zuma will be replaced by another friendly face, probably Nkosazan Dlamini Zuma, who produced such a sterling performance at the Department of Homeland Affairs that South Africans now must have visas to visit virtually every other country, and who will screen the Prez that everyone so loves from investigations into his crooked dealings.

And things will go back to normal, with the country sinking into the abyss that ensured that most thinking Whites voted for the National Party, even though they hated the policies of that Party. 

And so we go on.