By Chris Faure for The Saker Blog
The riotous looting has reduced but is still continuing into Wednesday. We don’t really know what is left to loot and burn but whatever is standing is still being looted and burnt.
This clearly was a planned initiative as the looter vehicles, cars and trucks have their number plates removed or covered with black plastic bags, the movement of the mobs are coordinated so there are instructions coming from somewhere, the looting mobs are growing bigger in size and the reasonable communities are in fear. Yet overall the activity has reduced with fewer targets and towns lying in rack and ruin.
It is difficult to give this a name, excepting anarchism and it is taking the shape of siege warfare. It seems to be a faction fight but who is really fighting who?. The looting is done by different mobs than the arson and burning of buildings and central business districts. So, is it a civil war, a coup d’état, or instigation toward a Rwanda type situation? Or, simply the poor eating the rich? The major question is why did the state security apparatus not see this coming? Or did they? And further, where is the state of emergency? Where is the tear gas to disperse crowds? Where is the sound cannon and where is the water cannon? Why are the crowds not being dispersed? At this moment, it could be a first force, a second force or a third force, some combination or some weird conflation, in charge of the lawlessness.
On the ground, the biggest danger now (besides looting mobs and real bullets being fired) is hunger. Shops are running out of stock (if they have not closed outright) and the biggest food distribution warehouse in South Africa serving other African countries, is being looted to nothing by thousands of looters. This is the central nerve centre for bulk food distribution in KZN (KwaZulu Natal) supplying all the major retailers including Shoprite, Checkers, Woolworths, SPAR and Game. There is a massive food crisis developing now. There is no bread, meat, milk, petrol and other essential supplies in most parts of Durban. KZN is literally burning to the ground.
The Police and military have lost control, and that is if they ever had it. Holding cells are full, so what is to be done with hundreds of arrestees but kick ‘em around a bit and let them go. Every single shop, every single warehouse as far as the horizon in every direction has been looted.
Unintended Consequences : There is a profound reason that some business regions and residential areas emerged completely unscathed: so far
Yet, South Africa is a strange place. There is another force and this is a force to be reckoned with and they have had their baptism of fire. Nobody really cares about an ex-President in jail, yet, town after town, area after area the citizens are showing that they know how to deal with this.
After years of taking care of their own security in a country with a crime rate as big as a war zone, civil society stood up, ready. The citizenry of South Africa have been living under the worst crime conditions imaginable.
The everyday ordinary suddenly became extraordinary. Here an overweight pensioner in shuffling sandals, there a roundish housewife with a handgun, a young man with a hunting rifle, an Indian trader with a shotgun, a skinny youngster with a golf club, another Indian woman, dressed in an elegant sari, but with a cane machete stuck through the back strap, others just with paintball guns.
With the police nowhere in sight, and the defense forces but a dream protecting the deli counters of supermarkets, these citizens stood up to protect their own. The ordinary, random citizens of South Africa who have had enough suffering beneath the most corrupt regime in Africa stood up, joined hands in ice-cold determination and superb organization to defend themselves and their lives and livelihoods. The mere sight of a wall of civilians who knew that their homes and livelihoods were at risk, was enough to indicate to looting mobs that this is not a soft target. Housewives were mobilized and small business owners blockaded entrances to suburbs with their private vehicles. Others patrolled with private drones. Food parcels were distributed. Shifts were rotated. Communication was relayed and coordinated. All around the country, the most unlikely people in the most unlikely groupings understood exactly what they had to do and set about doing it with full discipline.
The firearms legislation is draconian. One curious benefit has been the fact that all South African firearm owners had to have compulsory re-training in firearm handling.
There is an enormous irony. Just a few weeks ago, a new bill was proposed for public comment. This involved radical changes to the firearms act, which called for completely disallowing self-defense as a reason for obtaining a firearm license, and severely curtailing and eliminating most other reasons for owning arms as well. If accepted, it would practically mean the disarmament of the private citizens of South Africa. Meanwhile, what we saw happening over the past few days is probably the greatest international proof of concept for the need for private firearm ownership in a century. It provided conclusive proof that there are occasions on which the armed and police forces of a country cannot and will not protect its citizens – and that when this happens – the greatest and most valuable fallback army a country can have is its own private citizenry.
Let’s be clear. This citizen defense force did not set out to protect the government which is clearly now a state unable to even play the role, they did not protect an ex-President in jail, they did not protect the laws of the land, but they protected themselves against the tyranny of the majority. White, Black and Indian protect living areas together.
Still, serious calls for further help are also being heard. In the large town of Pietermaritzburg about 100,000 hooligans stormed .. but today, there is no food for 2 Million inhabitants. This morning there is a call for help from this city for experienced hands to re-establish stability. The citizen forces cannot continue on a longer term given millions of hungry in the countryside.
The town of Empangeni is looted and trashed completely. Entire shopping malls emptied in other places and cleaned out. Fridges, cell phones, TVs, bananas and floor mops, gun shops, veterinary surgery, computer repair, pharmacies, charity stores carried away in trucks, vans and cars or forklifts and industrial carts. Solar panels and corrugated iron sheets were ripped from the roofs. Farms and sugar cane fields set alight, animals half burnt and torched trucks all over the roads. The plunder is indescribable.
It seems that the small numbers of police that could be found, were employed to formally arrest perpetrators and process them. Scattered police co-operated very nicely with the citizen defenders and both parties greatly appreciated each other’s help. Perhaps they did what they could to handle a situation that had gone completely beyond the capabilities of their leadership to handle, despite the unnaturally large size of South Africa’s police force. Unconfirmed but I believe the stocks of ammunition is low.
Elsewhere, videos showed how members of the Indian communities of Natal, assembled to perform exactly the same tasks. Indians who have slowly found themselves to have been disdained and humiliated by the present dispensation, were now proudly on the side of resistance against tyranny. In other parts the brown communities evidently did the same. There has been instances of private citizens arresting police members for looting. This is a zoo.
There are not too many “free Zuma” slogans being heard and Julius Malema so far seemingly has not taken his Economic Freedom Fighters to join the looters.
We’re looking at a country that has become an incredibly dangerous mess. To find, amid all this confusion, that the country’s organized defense system had been caught completely off-guard is a huge embarrassment. And to find the non-formal defense citizenry strangely prepared and very organized, is probably going to be a surprise phenomenon. The clear preparedness of the civilian population is a ray of much hope for themselves but holds a warning for an utterly corrupt regime.
Yet, this is siege warfare. Siege against food, delivery of food, communication, main road arteries closed, trucking to deliver food. We do not know what anyone’s next steps will be.
The calls have just gone out in the last few minutes of writing, to change this yet again to a race war against whites. Listen to this video: https://saker.community/2021/07/14/video/
This is also fast becoming an international crisis as Sputnik has just reported that India is talking to the South African government about the attacks against Indian Suburbs. https://sputniknews.com/india/202107141083382415-india-in-talks-with-south-africa-about-pro-zuma-riots-after-indian-suburbs-are-attacked/
For photos, videos: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/
More from Sputnik: https://sputniknews.com/africa/202107141083383964-police-caught-looting-goods-as-deadly-riots-in-south-africa-enter-day-6—videos/
So heartbreaking. I’ve been to Jo’burg once, loved all the people I befriended. Blacks, Boer descendants, Asian descendants.
“so there are instructions coming from somewhere”
On a geopolitical level, I can only suspect divide and rule as an underlying rationale.
BRICS feels like RIP now.
They did regime change in Brazil. They are heavily pawing all of the week points of the BJP in India to divide her from China and Russia. How will this anarchy in SA benefit them in a parasitic capitalist sense, I’m unsure.
America has been trying to destroy BRICS for years dating back to Barack Obama and continued under Donald Trump and now further continued under Joe Biden.
Obama prepares to smash BRICS during his last few years in office
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/05/obama-prepares-smash-brics-during-his-last-few-years-office/
In terms of American foreign policy, there are no fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the United States is covertly aiding and abetting these riots by using its standard regime change/destabilization proxies and tactics.
Fomenting chaos throughout the world is what the American Empire of Chaos specializes in.
Is this a glimpse of what the USG has in store for American citizens? Is this why they staged the “insurrection” to build a wall around the politicians to protect them from the public when the SHTF? To give the Capitol police $2B? Hopefully, the people will be able to mobilize like the South Africans in protecting themselves when the SHTF. This explains why the Left is promoting the violence in the cities and the rioting and possibly the mass shootings. To use as an excuse to disarm the population. This demonstrates the importance of community cooperation and not be a lone wolf to survive. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Has in store? You mean the future in that case, but we had version 1, last Summer.
@ Chris Faure
Thank you for this very much appreciated Sitrep.
… or instigation toward a Rwanda type situation?
In Rwanda from 1990 to 1994, the French, as a proxy for the Western military-media complex, applied their doctrine of counter-insurgency warfare, war with the masses. The genocide was the attempt for the French defeated by the Rwandan Patriotic front to turn the tables to get a new game.
In the current situation the only goal seems to be to spread chaos, then famine. Seeing its total defeat looming, the empire unleashes a scorched earth plan so that the SCO and the BRICS cannot pick up the fruits of the victory that is becoming more visible every day.
This is just a guess, but the will to burn down the country seems to be established in your post.
As always in such situations I am sickened. The only thing I can do is to pray, but that’s not what this blog is about.
This is a South African adventure, but I can’t help thinking of it as an unfolding template for future American mayhem.
Such corrupt politicians must be kept on a leash by some Anglo-Zionist agencies. They do the job not to fall immediately, but only a little later. The short term view is the normal way of functioning of corrupt people in a corner.
Many cross-links make the situation difficult to understand. The South African political class is not a fully autonomous actor.
Let this be a warning for everyone. Know your neighbors. Be prepared to defend yourself. This could happen in the Western countries too
I do believe that all those media arslings who paid black people to rummage through garbage for photo ops back in the days of apartheid should be required to move to the paradise they had a hand in creating. Yes, my comment is accurate, from a friend who watched it happen.
A friend’s wife, black SA lady, said it best, we all had jobs and the system was efficient – not so today.
I know many Congolese who said the same thing after the independence of their country. They were wrong. Cognitive biases are just as numerous among Africans as elsewhere.
This sounds like what happened in America last summer only on a much larger and deadlier scale. Black Lives Matter=Free Zuma. These morons rioting and looting are setting the stage for a famine they themselves induced…and then they will come for what remains of the White farmers and take over the farms and the crops will fail, the livestock will die and they will fall into an even deeper, deadlier famine.
Sounds like US cities.
My parents emigrated from Europe to SA (the land of milk and honey) when I was a baby. I lived in that beautiful country for 33 years before I returned to EU in 1986 because I could already see the writing on the wall. I remember the Sharpeville riots of 1960. It was 1 km from our house and the word every white person spoke was “bloodbath”, which still rings in my ears, and which I now see exploding on the news.
Apartheid was very different to how the outside world was led to perceive it. In general life for the blacks was much better then, than it has become under black rule. Life was peaceful and there was no hate between black and white even though in truth the blacks suffered more poverty than whites and a lower level of education.
Apartheid was hyped and propagandized abroad and in SA itself, was exploited by certain people to provoke division. I believe it was an experimental divide and conquer strategy, to gauge the outcome after which it could be tweaked and used elsewhere.
As we can all see, it seems to be happening worldwide in more ways than we could ever have imagined just 2 years ago. Same old playbook. SA has now phased full circle, with, it seems, the rest of us to follow.
I know that paintball guns of all types (and power) are very popular in South Africa. This may be something my friends in the US could consider as part of a layered system. As part of a layered self-defence strategy – where a non-lethal (but firm and painful) deterant for tresspass is required (sort of a civilian rubber bullet), a high powered semi-auto paintball marker is worth considering (as are pellet guns).
I know many people who would never point a “real” gun at another person, even at an intruder breaking into thier home, but they would have no problems smashing the teeth out of an intruder with a paintball gun or popping an eye ball with an airgun pellet.
Other people I know have found high power paintball markers very useful for scattering scavengers / thieves – especially where a shotgun, much less a rifle, would not be appropriate.
CO2 or Pre-charged pneumatic air rifles (plinking types with less than 20ftlbs energy – not the 100+ Ftlb hunting types!) with multi-shot magazines are also useful non-lethal ranged weapons, but South African laws are stricter on these.
If the intruder / thief / rioter / looter / bad guy does not respond to a paintball round or two (or a pellet from an air gun), or they are armed or clearly not just an opportunist thief, then that is where the shotgun / rifle comes in.
Same tactics as the Police use really, rubber rounds / light brass bird shot first to dispurse people, then up to live rounds if a more serious self-defence situation develops.
The pictures and videos I have seen so far seems to support that pellets, paint / pepper balls, and low brass bird shot are being shot at 50+ yards by citizens to keep the scavengers and opportunistic away, but no 5.56 or 7.62 that I can see going down range yet.
My friends in the US would be wise to consider these non-lethal tactics (and others) as there will be situations when a pimped AR or 7.62 battle rifle is way too much against a few 16 year old kids trying to steal your tyres.
Intel on the ground is as follows (from interviews with looters)
– All ANC members under investigation ie. Ace, Zuma, Duduzane, Carl Niehaus etc and the previous Mayor of Durban – Zandile Gumede have orchestrated a grand plan to get away with their corruption by regaining control of the cabinet.
– Cyril has made it clear that all he plans to clean up house and those implicated in corruption will be prosecuted. Zuma being the one the NPA has started with, the NPA have also been hot on the heels of Ace, Duduzane and Zandile.
– Ace, Zum, Gumede stand to lose everything and will see jail time if this happens.
– The plot was simple, Ace as secretary general and Gumede as previous Mayor have full control of all ANC ward councillors and leaders in community. Gumede controls the Taxi association, through corruption,
and uses the taxi association to extort money from business, this is a well known fact in Durban.
– They devised a well-orchestrated plan to create anarchy, by reaching out to all ward councillors and other leaders in communities by exploiting their frustration in poor service delivery, poverty and lack of jobs with the promise of
being able to take everything and anything they want from any business.. and to make the “white people” feel what it feels like to be without food and jobs all the community had to do was to follow their lead and loot from the stores when the time came.
– The looting has been exceptionally well coordinated, with people knowing hours beforehand where they were going to target and when.
– The criminal elements then lead the community into the shopping centeres with the promise of free food, equipment, tv’s etc etc. “they will be protected by the leaders when looting”
– Co-ordinating the movement of thousands of people at the same time to the same place.
– Once anarchy sets in – they leverage the difficult situation cyril’s administration finds itself in and poor public opinion that ensues to initiate a vote of no confidence in Cyril, replace the cabinet and take back the government. Dissolve all cases against them and get away “scot free”
– Failing the vote of no confidence they initiate a coup
– Either way regaining control of the government.
– 90% of the looters are there for the free goods and have no intention to be violent or any political agenda.. they believe or at least they have been brainwashed into thinking they are righteous by taking what they never got.
– The other 10% are politically motivated to incite violence and create anarchy, supported by the MKMVA in order to destabilize the country and force government to make a bad move. ie. deploy the army and kill black people, falling right into the hands of Zuma faction.
– In summary this is internal ANC battle being played out on the battlefields of Durban with the rest of the country to follow.
Dave’s looters name Zuma, Ace, Duduzane and Zandile, and their operations were exceptionally well co-ordinated. This fits with my own previous post about bad vibes from Zulu Zuma in the early days of the Rainbow Nation. It is disgusting to see South African political parties now descending to the level of a U$ riots on the streets with naked power struggle between the Donkeys and the Elephants while the country go to pot.
South Africa is part of BRICS; I think one should look to Russia and China who manage to elect clean and competent Leaders who work for the good of their country.
Lockdown has made matters worse by accentuating poverty among the general public.
Seemingly the Zulus are standing back.
New young Zulu King – https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-14-the-poor-will-be-most-affected-zulu-king-calls-for-an-end-to-riots-and-looting/
And the Insurrection – https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-14-under-investigation-twelve-masterminds-planned-and-executed-insurrection-on-social-media-then-lost-control-after-looting-spree/
There’s much more to all of this than meets the eye. Just one component is that the Zulu nation stands to potentially lose some of their traditional tribal homeland due to the new EWC (expropriation without compensation) bill that the government wants to bring in. Zululand that forms part of Kwazulu Natal is a Zulu Kingdom – this is where the Zulus settled when they migrated into the region. It was protected under Apartheid under ‘bantustan’/homeland regulations.
Point of note/historical correction: as we know, activists maliciously and wrongly claimed that homelands were ‘created’ by Apartheid to sweep up international animosity against the Afrikaners/Boers in order to affect regime change through the Anti-Apartheid movement, much of it based on the Apartheid created the homelands lie. These African monarchies, the Zulu Kingdom, the Xhosa Kingdom, the Venda Kingdom, etc were all prepared to play along with the Anti-Apartheid movement’s lies about how the homelands were created – they never corrected that misinformation, so hardly anyone knows this about the old bantustans – they are African monarchies with special status and the land in them belong to tribal heads and kings. Now here’s the issue.
The EWC bill could mean that not only white people might lose their land if the state nationalizes it, but also the tribal homelands. This is most probably part of the dynamics of the current uprisings, because Zulu lands is threatened. Keep in mind Jacob Zuma is the second most important leader after the Zulu king, and he got jailed Sentiment on the ground may not reflect official statements made by the Zulu king for public consumption. The dynamics are all very deeply tribal. There could be many motives for wanting to destabilize the region and such dynamics would not feature in mainstream reporting.
Another unknown “little” point/issue: J. Zuma’s second-in-charge when he was president is the current president. They worked together as a team, but now the previous number two (who is now number one) is demanding action against the former number one and his people. The ANC is currently facing a major split because of this.
The above are only some factors, there are others – some known/some unknown.
Dear Mr Faure, I am sorry to say – your reporting is sensationalist and to a great extent inaccurate.
KZN is not “literally burning to the ground” and to say that “every single shop, every single warehouse as far as the horizon in every direction has been looted” is wildly overstating the facts on the ground.
Please take a look at the map at https://appengine.policylab.app/UnrestTracker/ – zoom in, and it becomes obvious that the looting (thus far) is confined to certain areas (sadly – mostly in poorer enclaves) in a very big country – and further, one hears that local communities are beginning to mobilise to protect their shopping and health centres.
The repercussions are undeniably going to be tragic – and we don’t know how the situation will play out.
But please – tempting as it is to react otherwise – be cool and be factual.
Pardon my gripe – and thank you for your efforts to examine these complex and frightening developments in my troubled (and faraway) homeland.
Cecile
Confirmed list of destroyed buildings in KZN as of yesterday:
30 Afroprop Buildings
30 Makro & Game buildings
Afrox
Bridge City Shopping Centre
Brookside Mall
China Mall
City Life Building
Cornubia Ridge Logistic Park – Warehouse 1
Davenport Centre
Defy Warehouse
Dunlop Center
Edendale Crossing Centre
Edendale Mall
Galleria Mall
Glenwood Village
Hyundai Dealership
Isithebe Industrial park
Kingspark Manufacturers factory
Laager Centre Spar
LG Warehouse
Machibisa Spar
Mams Mall
Massmart
Mega City Mall
Pinetown Central
Queensmead Mall
Redlyn Business Park
Ridge Mall
RTT Warehouse
SAB Pietermaritzburg Depot
SANBS
Sanlam Centre
Springfield Retail Centre
Superspar
The Workshop
Umgeni Business Park
Umkomaas Central
Umzinto Prison
Value Logistics
Vector Logistics Cold room
Warehouse – Resevior Hills
Warehouse in Brickfield
Wartburg Central
Watercrest Mall
Waterfall Storage Facility
West Street
Westmead Cash & Carry
This is only what is confirmed as completely burnt down.
This does not include what is still burning and still being looted.
The families that went home from work on Friday had no idea they’d be jobless for the most part by Tuesday.
This does not include the farms that were burnt,
the Durban Harbor that is closed with damage or other buildings that are just closed.
Take a look, these are not small incidents but complete malls and complete warehouses and complete manufacturing concerns.
We all know that a mall may have 30 or 40 individual stores in it.
The supply chain is destroyed.
This does not include the various cold chain trucking companies where their trucks were burnt out. It also does not include the burning trucks and vehicles on major roadways.
Food production and delivery are destroyed.
Fuel delivery is destroyed.
Exports of fruit and sugar, the main income for the province, are destroyed.
With the harbor closed, there is no movement of wheat or flour or bread-making requirements.
Without a cold chain, milk farmers are throwing their milk out and it does not reach the consumer.
There is a critical medicine shortage as pharmacies were looted and the one manufacturing plant has been destroyed.
This is continuing.
There is a small ‘voentorg’ now to fly in food to residents in various areas in KWN. They cannot buy food, they cannot buy fuel or just a few litres at a time if they can find it.
A chemical plant was put on fire, the chemicals spilled into the ocean and just North of Durban the beaches are littered with dead sea animals.
The various securities are now throwing thick layers of oil on the floor of anything still standing, to try and slow down the looting.
This morning Pietermaritzburg is quiet yet there are lines everywhere to try and find food and supplies.
There is no food delivery into Gauteng at this time.
Only a threat now, but tomorrow they say it is the turn of the Western Cape but we will have to see. The gun and ammunition stores are reporting they are out of ammunition.
This just in: “Cape Town arms and ammunition shops have seen an influx of patrons who want to protect themselves, in case the looting that started in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng comes to the Cape.”
In fact, news just in:
Suntrans trucking has been completely destroyed after arsonists set all the trucks alight at their depot in Cato Manor, Durban.
People are settling into the new reality of patrolling their neighborhoods and forming squads to do the job the police are still unable to do.
In fact, to the contrary, I actually stay away from sensationalist words. I can entertain everyone with sensationalists videos and thousands of looters and crying people because their area is being shot at, all day long. Accuracy I get from the ground. Please note your app tracker only lists ‘formally confirmed’. I promise you there is very little ‘formal confirmation’ happening. The local citizen defense does not use this tracker because it is out of date and does not reflect reality on the ground.
What riots in the Cape, there are barely any Zulus in the Western Cape. The more the rest of the country burns, the easier it will be for the Western Cape to get its independence. And this was only a fraction of the Zulu’s getting involved for the sake of one of their corrupt own, imagine what would happen if the whole Zulu nation took up arms. Bye bye Rainbow Nation of God, welcome Republic of the Cape of Good Hope, or whatever the name is to be. Before it was the clever White twits in the interior who wanted to make the laws in the Cape, now its the clever Black twits in the interior who want to make the laws in the Cape, the Cape doesn’t need them. The Zulu’s can rule themselves in KZN as they see fit and do whatever they want to there, the Cape can rule itself, the rest of the country can survive as best they can. Bayete!!!
Pity there are so many divisive parties in the Cape all wanting the same thing but unable to work with one another. The emblem of this one particular party shows what lands constitute the Cape, everything from the old Cape province except for the Xhosa occupied territories and what the Tswana in the north now occupy (can become part of Botswana).
(no blue bull supporters welcome)
https://www.capeparty.com/
I must admit, as a citizen of the most beautiful province in SA, the thought of an independent or federally administered Cape Town was always appealing but seemingly on the “fringe” of lunacy – that was until the events of last week. We have all seen the consistently efficient performance of our local municipality under the DA (not without criticism – especially its pro-Israel and Pr0-Big business stance) – Safety and prosperity are the cornerstones of a happy existence. Why not then an Independent Cape Town? – Big question is – is it economically viable?
Its not just about an independent Cape Town, its about an independent Cape, harking back to the days of the good old self governing British Cape Colony. This encompasses all areas where the KhoiSan are the majority. Basically the KhoiSan are the oldest people / race on planet Earth, as evidenced by the dating of the bushman paintings across southern African. So a land for the oldest people / race on planet Earth is not too much to ask for. Then everything stays the same as it is now, only it gets even better.
The viability of such a venture has been calculated already, somewhere on the Cape Party website is all the numbers. Basically 60% of the wealth of the Cape gets sent to the central government to get squandered somewhere. Were that wealth to be retained, then the 10 new harbours that were supposed to get built in the Cape could get built, the train mess sorted out, and many other initiatives launched. Cape Town has not been developed for decades because the central government concentrates on areas where everything built is just going to get burnt anyway. Ok, the central government wants to develop the poor areas, but charity begins at home, the Cape must look after itself first.
Basically if all that Khoisan land is not taken then it will just be lost to and then destroyed by the Bantu tribes. It also provides for a buffer zone between the rest of South Africa and Cape Town. Everywhere where there are Cape Dutch style farm houses is Cape.
Agreed about the DA, they are sometimes as annoying as those Democrats in the States.
Thank you for your comprehensive response – there is nothing in it that I can disagree with.
My point was that it is not South Africa that is burning, but only specific parts – some areas in KZN and Gauteng.
It is interesting that critical warehouses, Durban Port and Transport have been attacked – to me, that indicates that it is not ‘merely’ an uprising of hungry people, but potentially a coup attempt.
I suppose the outcome will favour whoever is actually in control of the army (small as it is).
The repercussions are going to be tragic (food, medicine and fuel shortages), and local citizen defense may become (as it already has for years in farming communities) the only protection ordinary citizens can rely on.
Cape independence – breaking away from South Africa – may become a reality?
What do you think?
The Western Cape is about 50% Coloured (Khoisan extract not Mulatto) and about 20% White, in the Northern Cape the proportion of Coloureds (Khoisan extract not Mulatto) is even higher, so there is no reason why the Cape cannot become independent. Zuma and the Zulu’s have done South Africa proud, it is now apparent even to the Coloured ANC supporters that a future with the Bantu is just not possible, the street lights won’t work, neither will the electricity, water and sewage, roads will be full of potholes, and every now and then riots and looting will break out for no reason. The Bantu were good allies when it came to the anti-Apartheid struggle but when it comes to a peaceful, progressive and prosperous, well managed life they are the worst buddies one can get. Plus they insist that 80% of the jobs must go to them when they are a minority in the Cape.
The Cape has always been the last remaining stronghold of the KhoiSan, if it can become independent and reverts back to non-racial qualified franchise it had back in the 1850’s already (before the clever White nitwits in the interior took the Coloured vote away in 1948 along with lots of Coloured owned land and property with the Group Areas Act), then the Cape can last forever. All the snoek and the klipdrift is here, gas and oil deposits are always being found off the coast though not utilized for some reason, probably because of the Antarctic weather which hits the coast often. Its not called the Cape of Storms for nothing. The only nuclear power station in Africa is in the Cape, lots of sun for renewables in the Kalahari, etc, etc. The Cape has got all it needs, it really does not need the rest of South Africa.
The problem with you guys (and the English) is that you don’t want to give any credit where its due – and in many cases you want to take credit for Afrikaner/Boer achievements. It’s only through mutual respect (therefore acknowledgement of everyone’s contributions) that any collaboration and cohesion in political projects can be achieved and maintained. Perhaps if you take the chip off your shoulder, there can be some progress in that direction.
Agreed Cecile. As a person living through this in Cape Town (The second largest economic Hub after Gauteng) has seen hardly any similar incidents of attempted (co-ordinated) attacks – at least two major planned ones that we knew of, was thwarted by local authorities (quick pre-emptive action by the as usually responsive DA-Led local government?). We did see the mobilisation of Cape Town’s Metro Police metro police (under the auspices of the DA led local government), protecting malls and monitoring routes. Of course, as usual, the criminal element is possibly the only “faction” ready at a drop of a hat to take advantage of the original political mobilisation -But we heard Social Media broadcasts from family members in KZN, urging (Blacks) to loot non Black and specifically White owned businesses to take away the “economic power” of Whites – sadly, it was the ANC who bargained away Black Economic Power in order to allow the creation of a New democratic South Africa (probbaly by arm twisting asissted by the previous colonial powers). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a sham – Whites who were responsible for the most shameful Apartheid era crimes were given a slap on the wrist – their (few) functionaries convicted of crimes and sent to prison. The politicians, idealogues, Judges and top brass of the army and Police force and SA’s sprawling security apparatus got off scott free. So it is easy, nearly thirty years on, to mobilise the mass of impoverished hungry Black South Africans, more driven by the harsh 2020 Covid lockdown, than by the above,mentioned previously.
In pre election 1994, the fear amongst non-Black South Africans was tangible – fearing a mass uprising post election, many Whites, Indians and Coloured people who could afford to, fled, others, especially owners of small businesses, decided to arm themselves with firearms and survivalist equipment expecting a rapid transition to anarchy. This did not happen then. So to infer that the past two week’s events are anything less than carefully planned politcial machinations by a clique within or without of the ruling party, is simply not true . What is true and patently obvious, was the extremely slow and lacksadaisical response from the central government in curtailing the anarchy – whether through fear of alienating its voter base or some other reasons, the government has left us all wondering if it is capable of defending the various racial and socio-economic strata that make up the Rainbow nation. The fear is real, tangible and entirely justified. As far as the draconian gun laws are concerned, I agree entirely, that even current gun laws are draconian – affecting the police as well as the ordinary citizen equally – are entirely unjustified in an atmosphere of severe, nationwide police and government impotence in the war against drugs, gangerterism and crime. Expect a rush to the clandestine procurement of heavier (illegal) armaments (AK 47’s, RPG’s) by minorities in the months to come.
This is brutal to watch, but please remind me again that all the anti-white messaging is just hysteria on the part of whites:
https://t.me/RealVincentJames/9375
First Rhodesia, now SA, tommorrow the USA. If it would be revenge targeted at actual criminals, the Anglos who perpetrated slavery, imperialism and the like is one thing, but this is something very different. This is a civil war or arguably a race war.
And don’t come crying that Vincent James is a racist. I will use my own brain and judge for myself what the information, videos etc. really mean. I suggest everyone uses their own faculties instead of mindless repetition of manufactured talking points.
From RT this morning:
‘We don’t know where to run’: South Africans brace for new wave of ‘devastating’ riots after ex-president Zuma jailed (VIDEO)
https://www.rt.com/news/529240-south-africa-rioting-looting/
Difficult to point you into the right direction. But it is important to know that this is an internal fight between longstanding opponents in the ANC . On the Zulu side it is also important to understand the Zulu King delegitimized Zuma’s order for mobilization. So, basically he and his veteran buddies has been put in a corner. The future is therefor a drive to political change where the ANC is expected to split in order to allow the discontented protestors to have their own voice without shaming MANDELA’S ANC infrastructure of the World.
Having been to Gauteng & KwaZulu-Natal this is so tragic. But it could soon happen in many nations where Covid lockdowns have sent millions into poverty like they have in South Africa the past 15 months. All it needs is a spark like the arrest of the corrupt Zuma.
A year ago insurance actuaries, economists, epidemiologists & public health scientists at South Africa’s http://www.pandata.org predicted the nation’s strict lockdowns had thrown 3M South Africans back into poverty, erasing 20 years of post-Apartheid spending on the poor townships. Also that health consequences would equate to 30 Years of Life Lost (YLL) for every year saved from Covid19. That was without calculating social collapse or civil war.
The WHO is run by Gates & BigPharma who are in turn under control of a globalist oligarchy who allegedly want depopulation. Lockdowns in poorer nations and perhaps experimental vaccines in wealthy nations where official adverse event databases are deluged with mortality & morbidity data that indicate children & young people have many times greater risk from gene-based spike protein creating vaccines than from the virus itself. Doctors and medical groups pointing this out are censored. As are treatments like vitD, HCQ, IVM that could’ve ended this pandemic months ago.
At least the Indian Bar Association has taken the WHO representative to court on mass murder charges for the suppression of Ivermectin where it’s now clear that states in India that used IVM widely in contradiction of WHO & federal orders from New Delhi, have fared many times better with low Covid mortality & illness rates than states that followed the ban.
See https://twitter.com/Covid19Critical/status/1414697859350470667?s=20 & https://twitter.com/Covid19Critical/status/1414219772934377475?s=20
for data re India & IVM.
Nice, Lucid comment
Some honest words being said:
https://twitter.com/rightssa2020/status/1415681669789409285?s=21
You’re screwing up South Africa. You inherited a perfectly good country and you messed it up. If you cannot run it, give it back to the Boers.
The Boers only looked clever when they had the richest deposits of gold on planet Earth. Anyone would look clever with that much gold. When the easy gold disappeared so did Apartheid. The Brits are the Whites with the brains in South Africa, after all, that is where the industrial revolution started.
During the pre-Apartheid years the so called poor White problem (mostly Afrikaner) was widespread in South Africa. Blacks lived better lives than the poor Whites then. During Apartheid these poor Whites lived the best times of the live. Now unfortunately post-Apartheid its back to the poor White problem again, and more so every day. And the problem now is the same as it was then, as General Barry Hertzog of the National Party said back in 1924
it is “in the nature of things [that] the fittest would survive, but the fittest was not European. The fittest was the native, who could live more cheaply. Parliament so would have to take steps to stop the kind of economic force which was against the European.”
If only the dumb Nats hadn’t applied that policy to the Cape when they took over in 1948, then perhaps South Africa would be salvageable now, because then there would have been a significant non-White middle class. But the Boers, being clever, went and applied Apartheid to the Cape, so a united and prosperous South Africa is not possible, or very unlikely. Now only an independent Cape has any possibility of success.
gT:
In reply to your comment, all I’ll say is your attitude says it all and good luck thinking Boers/Afrikaners are going to join an independence movement that’s going to put English interests first, whether that’s English language or English culture, in an independent Western Cape.Considering that the Afrikaners’ forefathers (Dutch) arrived 142 years and (French) 107 years before the English did. And the considering that the English forced Afrikaners to speak English back then when they took over the Cape colony. And considering the attitude of English people (and most Brown people) today towards the Afrikaans language and their support for pushing Afrikaans out of higher education institutions in the Western Cape, even though Afrikaans is the most spoken language in the province, not one Uni offering the language anymore as a first language of tuition. (Only a few Brown people protested against this and most Brown people prefer to speak English even though their home language is Afrikaans).
Virtually everything in the Western Cape has been anglicized under the Democratic Alliance (predominantly an English party). I would say your idea is quite far-fetched, but this debate is still to be had among the peoples of the province, but it seems lots of assumptions are being made. It’s not surprising that there’s several independence movements, exactly due to the above. Considering that Afrikaners got burned badly with the D.A. that went woke and abandoned them, I don’t think they are looking to “be managed” or to have their affairs in the hands of any other cultural group in WC.
Also, what exactly is happening at the Afrikaans cultural institutions such as the Afrikaans language monument in Paarl and Afrikaans museum where Brown people have been put in charge by ANC national government? I have it in good authority that white Afrikaner culture is sidelined in those institutions while Brown Afrikaans culture is prioritized (some of those people who work there don’t even speak Afrikaans as a first language …), but who established those institutions ..?
Afrikaners are not blind to any of the above. Fortunately there are other options than the Cape Party, but good luck with it and don’t forget to ‘bash the Boer’ as you go along so you can alienate more of us.
@ gT
“But the Boers, being clever, went and applied Apartheid to the Cape, so a united and prosperous South Africa is not possible, or very unlikely.”
There was always “Apartheid” in South Africa, since its inception – and there is still Apartheid today (it’s called: BEEE/Affirmative Action). Under British rule it just went by a different name. 80% of Apartheid laws were already in place by the time the Boers came in power in 1948, they just changed the name and expanded the already in place segregation policies to the policy of Separate Development. I think you need to update yourself on the comprehensive history of South Africa, not the selective one pushed by the anti-apartheid movement – I can recommend this article on The Saker Blog by Remote Writer:
/apartheid-vs-apartheid-in-the-time-of-wokeness/
This is the private agenda of the corporate/government nexus against the interests of the people.
Divide and conquer … even the white people are divided in Mzansi … caught up in historical feuds and each loyal to his own narrow group-identity.
What hope for the rest of us?
Capetonian,
True, but even without the divide and conquer strategies, the very nature of South Africa is that the peoples within it have always been divided to various extents and this will always be the case – that’s simply the reality of it. Various strategies have been followed to resolve this: colonial segregation / separate development – apartheid / unity in diversity and Rainbow Nation Mandelaism + one party state, centrally governed “democracy”. All of these approaches were experimental and all have failed. Now there are calls again for independence and separate development (as you can see in some comments), from the same people who literally fought against Apartheid (- oh the irony…). Perhaps if it was not such a bright idea in the first place to have forced so many nations together artificially in the first place in 1910 through imperialism and to have expect them to all live happily together for ever after. All of this will sort itself out over time – history is always in flux.
All I know is that the Brits abolished slavery in the Cape in 1834 and thereafter the Afrikaners started their Great Trek into the interior because they considered slavery an essential part of their culture. Then the Brits gave the vote to all in the Cape with qualified non-racial franchise in 1853.
Then roughly 100 years later, in 1948, the Boers came and took away the Coloured vote and all the lands, property and businesses the Coloureds had accumulated in that 100 years of relative freedom, it wasn’t much but it was something.
I also know that many Afrikaners in the Cape wanted the Cape to remain as it was except they were overruled by those from the interior. So this is not an English Afrikaner divide as much as you want it to be portrayed as such.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torch_Commando
The best of luck in getting your republics and slavery back in Africa again old chap.
@ gT
The problem is that everyone has their own revisionist and selective version of history of events to suit their own narrative and to make their group ‘shine’ the most. This is usually done by omitting important facts for context, and that just leads to more disagreements and endless divisions. I don’t see this changing anytime soon, as it’s coming from all sides.
Case in point in your comment: You say that the English abolished slavery in the Cape, but you omit the fact that they were also the biggest bringers of slaves TO the Cape with their ships (ask Herman Gilomee, famous South African historian). You omit to mention that slavery was common at the time an ALL colonies (nobody disputes that slavery was a bad thing – for even more context you could also mention that white people were taken as slaves from Europe to North Africa during the Barbery salvery), but because it was practiced back then worldwide does not make the Dutch/Free Burgers (Boers) exclusively evil of the act, neither does it absolve the Brits of their own part in it, just because they turned at some point to abolish it.
The Trek Boers trekked into the interior for various reasons (you omitted that, but at least you confess to being selective by saying “all I know”), mainly because they were treated like 2nd class citizens and were forced to speak English, so the English were oppressing the Boers and the Boers were oppressing the slaves (but the trend is to always white-wash – pun intended – the Brits out of the equation). The restrictions put on the Boers regarding slavery were so severe that they would not have been able to continue farming, so that was indeed one of the reasons they chose to trek. Were all slaves treated badly? No. Many of them slept with Boers in their own homes and were like family members (see the TV/DVD series The Afrikaners by Herman Gilomee for visual evidence).
Removing the Colored/Brown voted during Apartheid was an idiotic move by the Afrikaners in my view and I’ve not met an Afrikaner yet, that disagrees. Many idiotic things were done during/under Apartheid in the name of it. As for resettlement and group areas rezoning – as wrong as it was to forcefully remove people those people, they were resettled into new areas and compensated in that way – this is the missing context) , often with new infrastructure and houses, entire new neighborhoods built by Apartheid government in some cases. My understanding is that the government at the time considered District Six and others as hovels (‘flavellas’) more or less beyond redemption and so decided deal with the situation through resettlement. Missing Context: Resettlement still happens today regularly in the Western Cape under the Democratic Alliance with shacks in informal settlements being demolished and people’s being moved into ‘temporary settlement camps’ (fences and all). Question: Does Brazil or India sometimes enact resettlement?
You say that the Boers “took all the lands, property and businesses the Coloureds had accumulated in 100 years”. I’d like you to provide proof for this claim as I’ve not seen it made anywhere else. We know for example while some colored areas were resettled, others weren’t (District Six vs Bo-Kaap for example). Exaggerations are not helpful and has always been the mainstay of the Anti-Apartheid movements locally and abroad, with great success, mind you, because people abroad generally took your word for it, but many people are waking up internationally to the outright lies and manipulation of the Anti-Apartheid movements:
/apartheid-vs-apartheid-in-the-time-of-wokeness/
“The best of luck in getting your republics and slavery back in Africa again old chap.” – The fact that you think it’s a good thing that the Boers lost their republics during the 2nd Anglo Boer War and that they shouldn’t get it back, says it all – and insinuating that they want slavery back is just slander.
In case it’s lost on you: Secession / independence for the Western Cape (which you are championing) IS apartheid. Balkanizing South Africa is – I repeat a form of Separate Development – which in its essence is what Apartheid was about, so you have come around to the idea anyway, have you? Notwithstanding your criticism of it.
Your envisioned separate W.C. seems to also have an ethnic demographic orientation as you mention the % of (Khoi-and-Colored) you claim to be a majority over white people. Well, you seem to be quite ethnically aware, but keep in mind that Afrikaners/Boers have as much as 12% Khoi add-mixture, so perhaps you should’t exclude them from your numbers.
My personal view is that secession of WC is unlikely and that the more likely outcome is ethnic enclaves that will form naturally as they state continues to fail and descend into chaos. In other words informal balkanization as opposed to formal. Due to all the differences between minorities – and because they have historically been working against each other, as even exposed in this debate – formal independence supported by all equally on the same terms is highly unlikely. Order out of the chaos will nevertheless be the eventual result – let’s see what happens.
“You say that the Boers “took all the lands, property and businesses the Coloureds had accumulated in 100 years”. I’d like you to provide proof for this claim as I’ve not seen it made anywhere else.”
I can give my own family’s example here, we had a farm in Paarl next to a river, that is where my father learnt to swim. Along came the Group Areas Act and we had to sell the farm for next to nothing and move. My grandfather moved 4 more times after that, each time it was the Group Areas Act again, eventually he just rented and left his money in the bank. My grandfather bred pigs, chickens / eggs and bulldogs for sale. We owned some corner shops and a factory which produced I don’t know what. My grandfather always worked a normal job and ran his businesses on the side, my grandmother worked as a school teacher. The shops collapsed because my father and uncles would just give their friends free cigarettes, the factory I don’t know what happened there. But in George there was a case where a Coloured owned mall in a Coloured area was not allowed because it would deprive Whites of business. There were lots of examples of this kind of thing. At one point my grandfather rented a house in Walmer Estate, next to District 6. District 6 was always considered the low class area, whereas Walmer Estate was the English speaking area. But we were middle class, there were lots of richer Coloured families out there, most of the more affluent Christian Coloured families immigrated in the 50’s and 60’s. My grandmother used to go on cruises every few years or so to visit the family overseas.
My father always told us jokes about how he used to go to school (private) in his school uniform and the White kids in the road used to wear flour sacks and go barefoot. My grandmother went to UCT after it moved to its current location at the foot of Table mountain, as did my father, but they kicked him out when they found out he was Coloured.
The word Afrikaner originally meant one of mixed breed before it got changed to mean one of White Dutch origin living in Africa. The Afrikaner breed of cattle is in fact the Khoisan’s cattle, so I could never exclude the Afrikaner from Southern Africa.
And you, you were probably poor White until Apartheid elevated you. How many relatives in the poor White employment bureaus of Transnet, Portnet, SpoorNet, Eskom, Yskor and so on? But probably all Afrikaners today claim that they weren’t poor White.
Secession of the WC is more likely than another Boere republic or a workable South Africa.
Well, white Afrikaners are not pure white either as we know, but two different cultures formed between the mostly white Afrikaners (Boers & Cape Dutch) and the mostly non-white Afrikaners (Brown/Coloured people). They share the same language, but the dialects are different (Standaard Afrikaans vs. Kaaps), the first group is 99% Christian while the other group is a blend: many are Muslim and some are Christian. Culturally Afrikaners are distinctly European, whereas Brown/coloured Afrikaans people are a combination of European and Asian culture – strong Malay influences for example. So, all in all these two groups are actually distinctly different communities, even though they share the same language.
As for the economic history of the poor Afrikaners/Boers, they were terribly poor due to the devastation to their livelihoods due to the Anglo-Boer War. That was the reason for their extreme poverty. It was that devastation and near-annihilation (from their perspective) that then lead to their implementation of Apartheid in such a strong way when they got into power – that’s they view of Helene Opperman in her book, ‘Apartheid – Britain’s Bastard Child’ (recommended reading). According to her there would not have been the implementation of Apartheid if it were not for the Boers experiencing an extreme subconscious fear of annihilation due to so many of their women and children having died in the concentration camps, and because they lost their Boer Republics which meant they suffered from a sense of lack of security (no safety).
My views is that we have to be prepared to factor everybody’s context and history and stories in when judging past events in South Africa. Nobody is innocent in the country and everybody has experienced some form of injustice at some stage.
Although I do like the idea of independence, due to all these differences and the historic unresolved resentments (and still ongoing undermining of each other) I’m not sure how collaboration is going to be achieved and which independence group will eventually take the lead. But, perhaps events on the ground will get so bad that we will all forget our differences long enough to actually hook independence through.
@South African
Nice analogy of the White Afrikaners and the Brown Afrikaners, its probably very true. One Afrikaner buddy of mine always used to say that in the past we used to mix, now we don’t mix, now verbastering is verboden, Sieg Heil, then we’d drink on that.
But that theory of Helene Opperman that Apartheid is Britain’s Bastard Child is a bit far fetched. Firstly the Anglo Boer wars ended in 1902, then the Union of South Africa, where all the provinces joined together, occurred in 1910. So from 1910 onwards all the war damage done in the interior was fixed. To say that what happened in 1902 led to the brutal implementation of Apartheid in 1948 is stretching things a bit too far. Its like me stubbing my baby toe on a door frame now and then kicking the cat in 40 years time, then blaming it on my stubbing my baby toe on the door frame 40 years prior.
The real cause of the poor White problem was because there was not enough land and water for the Afrikaner to live his lifestyle. Given that South Africa is drought prone and the rinderpest epidemic, malaria, African horse sickness, African swine flue, and so on, it means that farmers in South Africa are always close to skid row, for lack of a better term. 5 years of drought can drive any farmer into poverty with no means of getting out of it, because he won’t be able to afford stock or seed when the rain comes again. He would probably have had to sell his land at low price just to survive. Tenant farming just delayed the inevitable.
@Suid Afrikaner
Me, English? perish the thought :-). I’m Hotnot, its not my fault I was sent to one of the best English private school’s and then to one of the best English universities in South Africa during Apartheid times. Ek kan ook die taal gooi wanneer ek wil.
The facts speak for themselves
1806 – British annex the Cape
1834 – Slavery ended in the Cape
1835 – Start of the Groot Trek of the Slavers out of the Cape.
Nobody disputes this, least of all the Afrikaners. But that doesn’t make the English angels just because they decided in the midst of all their colonial conquests to abolish slavery. It’s not as if their abolishing of slavery stopped them from continuing with their imperialism or stopped them from making a war against the Boers to get access to all the gold and diamonds in the Boer Republics 65 years later, with a lot of lives lost – black and white (in the concentration camps).
What I find intriguing is the lengths that Black and Colored South Africans would go to always white-wash and completely ignore (and totally excuse) what the Brits have done in SA (or only refer to it in very vague terms), while never forgiving the Afrikaners and always exaggerating everything they’ve done as much as possible. It all seems a bit obsessive to me. You probably actually think of yourselves as English. Hey, whatever floats your boat, man! Over and out.
@Suid Afrikaner : You said “My understanding is that the government at the time considered District Six and others as hovels (‘flavellas’) more or less beyond redemption and so decided deal with the situation through resettlement. ” and quite a few other Apartheid crime whitewashing statements. Your “missing context” is more than matched by the REAL context. – Apartheid Group Areas legislation was not about cleaning out unsavoury areas – it was about identifying pristine, 1st rate suburbs and kicking out non Whites from those areas. In Cape Town, in racially mixed areas such as Woodtock, Diep River, Harfield village, Sea Point, parts of Hout bay, Kalk Bay, Constantia etc etc were ethnically cleansed by forced relocation because of their prime residential status as seaside suburbs or semi – rural status (eg Constantia, Tokai) – speak as a former resident of one of these areas with my parents and other relatives being resident in at least two other of the above-mentioned areas. Of course, the identification of these areas was assisted by local government apartheid era functionaries living in mixed areas. This is part of the reason why the TRC was a betrayal of all non White South Africans – there seems to be just no regret from White South Africans – simply re-contextualising of apartheid crime as misunderstood/misplaced White altruism.
Raoul and gT,
Having worked at the Saker blog for a very long time, I can only conclude that perhaps you are deliberately not saying anything about the current situation in South Africa. This may be a ploy to take people’s minds off what is happening today.
End of story is, go and talk about history somewhere else. Or, write a new submission for the Saker Blog if you feel so inclined.
But this taking this thread off topic, must please stop now.
What is happening in South Africa today, while riots are continuing but at a lesser pace. What does this mean for the country? Why did the ANC government not act or acted days after the destruction started? Who is going to buy up all the business in distress? To my knowledge there are still burnings, roads are still being blocked with putting trucks and cars to fire.
The riots and looting are 90% plus confined to those parts of the country where there are Zulus. So it mostly Kwazulu-Natal and some parts of Gauteng impacted, in the rest of the country nothing is happening. Yes KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) was the hardest hit, but that is where the Zulu’s live, and the Zulu’s are Zulu, they like violence.
While there should not be much shortages in Gauteng, in some parts of KZN people are really suffering, some are in fear for their lives. Everything should calm down now that the army has been deployed, but its going to take a while before most goods, services and amenities are available again.
https://specialprojects.news24.com/-unrestsa-map-hotspots-looting-kzn-gauteng/index.html
The Government can’t do anything properly, even at the best of times. Further complicating matters is the fact that the Chief of Police is a Zulu who was appointed by Zuma. Most of the bigwigs in the security apparatus are Zulu, and appointed by Zuma. Probably most soldiers in the army are Zulu also. It was always expected that the Zulu’s would go on the warpath one day, and that the security apparatus would support the Zulus, but the Zulu’s going on the warpath over a corrupt Zuma was a total surprise, and a bit of an embarrassment that it was over the corrupt Zuma as well. Luckily its only a fraction of the Zulu nation that is involved.
Some are saying that some of the sabotage was planned with military precision. Which is probably correct, given the number of ex military personnel in South Africa. But South Africans are tough, for most this issue is a non event. But some people are fragile, for them the threat of violence is worse than the actual violence. I know of some places in Durban where the guys would have flooded the streets ready to welcome the rioters with spades, pick ax handles, cricket bats and petrol bombs, where the gangsters would have gone digging in their backyards for their illegal caches of firearms, and other places where everyone would have just stayed in their house looking through the curtains for the police to arrive to save them.
How is this going to impact South Africa, in the short term hopefully it leads to some sort of federalization, different tribes need their own area to govern as best they can, certainly the central government can’t react in time. In the long term I hope it leads to independence for the Cape.
Its interesting that Raoul and I are thinking alike, most Capetonians think the same way.
A friend in Durban just told me now that all is well, in his area at least. All the malls were looted, but as soon as the rioters started moving towards the neighborhoods the community barricaded the streets and dissuaded the rioters from advancing further.
The malls have reopened, but limited people are allowed inside at a time to prevent funny business. I never asked if all goods are available.
You’ve got to hand it to the guy; he’s nearly perfected that fakery of an accent. If I didn’t know he’s from a country that’s another default away from Banana Republic, I’d be convinced he was genuinely concerned. Perhaps he should first test his advice to the authorities in Lusaka before dishing it out to Africa.
We’re getting reports in that fuel and food trucks are going into KWN in convoys and protected by the military.
Something is being picked up here thank goodness!
Nobody in South Africa, either the press nor commentators, have the guts to admit that demanding that the ex-president Zuma (with significantly large and politically powerful support base and with a very loyal and tribal following) goes to prison on something like a contempt of court charge, was one of the largest political blunders in the history of the country. It’s beyond belief that it could not have been foreseen, meaning there’s a good chance it was foreseen and that’s possibly why there was hardly any intervention either. Perhaps it was mean to be a larger destabilization that fizzled out due to defense actions by civilians? Woefully inadequate newspaper analyses in South African weekend newspapers, mostly smoothing over the complete failure of the state to enact its constitutional mandate to protect citizens. Incredible that this could have happened in South Africa, notwithstanding a major deterioration in armed forces readiness over the years. Hard to believe it was purely incompetence – I fail to believe such a level of incompetence is possible. The state acted very competently indeed in implementing Covid regulations through military deployments, but in this case it took them days on end to respond? Not buying it, but whatever the case is, it’s clear that citizens are on their own. Strange days for South Africa. At least most of the looting has subsided, but most likely the true supply-chain and delivery repercussions will start to be felt this coming week, most likely country wide. Situation is far from over in many respects. Aftermath will be felt for decades.