South African racism on steroids

By Barbara Simpson

It didn’t take long. Scarcely had the news gotten out that the new government in South Africa under Cyril Ramaphosa had declared all out war against white farmers and landowners in that country, then those very people realized that their days would be numbered if they didn’t try to get out.

It may be difficult for Westerners to fully realize that race and tribal politics form the core of South African politics. This is especially true for those who bought into the idea that Nelson Mandela, as head of the African National Congress (ANC), and those who followed him in power, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, would be the ones to bring true freedom and equality to that beleaguered country after apartheid.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I was naïve about the extent of it until I was in South Africa and saw firsthand what was going on and read local newspapers. One evening, at the home of a group of locals, we were discussing things and I cautiously expressed some mild criticism of Mbeki, and one of the men there said, “Well, of course. He’s a communist – they all are.”

That was the beginning of my real education about the communist infiltration of that government and, indeed, most African nations. It was not the picture given us (then or now) by Western media – the sugarcoated image of poor blacks taken advantage of by cruel whites. Not that there wasn’t white cruelty, but apartheid is over and yet the disparity between the haves and have-nots continues. Yes, blacks are in political power, yet the poverty of poor blacks has not changed much, and now there are large pools of poor whites as well.

The horrific slums I saw in the townships are essentially still there though the skin color of the occupants has changed. Now there are blacks and whites in desperate poverty, and total numbers have only increased. What has changed is the number of upper-class blacks – – many living in a luxury that heretofore was not possible for them.

Unfortunately for the people, the corruption of the government under Zuma became pervasive. Scandals rocked the country over and over, and eventually a change came about in the most recent election after Zuma was pressured to resign. Whether that will continue being considered a victory remains to be seen because with the success of Ramaphosa, the country faces many crises.

Not the least of these is dealing with debt and foreign investment, to say nothing of improving the education system, urban decay and, perhaps mainly, land reform.

Unfortunately for the people, the new president has declared that he will confiscate land from white farmers and other landowners, and there will be no compensation for such clear, racist theft.

This is exactly what Robert Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe and what has turned that country into an economic disaster. What used to be a thriving agricultural exporter, Zimbabwe can barely feed its starving population. The idea that by giving “white” land to “blacks” things would improve turned out to be a fiasco. Blacks didn’t know how to farm, and agriculture died – and so has the economy of the country.

In South Africa, now that Ramaphosa and his party voted to allow the government theft of land from whites, the door is now open to virulent racism.

Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), said there are plans to remove white mayors from areas and said, “We are starting with this whiteness. We are cutting the throat of whiteness. We want to kill white farmers.”

When it became known that Australia has offered to welcome South African whites who want to immigrate to that country, Malema says those whites can go but must leave the keys to their farm equipment and their houses, because “we want to live in those houses.” He warned them not to make noise when they leave because that “will irritate us.”

There are reports of efforts to open immigration to white South Africans in the U.K., in Australia and the United States.

So far, as much as I can tell, U.S. media are ignoring the issue, and in the U.K., there are rumbles that giving preference to South African whites would be racist.

Australia has stepped up, with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton saying that farmers whose land was stolen should be granted emergency visas because of their being subjected to violence and extreme brutality.

The daily reports of the attacks on farms and the families are more than gruesome. People are tortured, raped, burned and forced to watch the beatings of family members. This in addition to the destruction of their property and animals. If you want to see some of the violence, see the report in the U.K. Daily Mail – it’s true, graphic horror.

Minister Dutton said the farmers deserved special immigration attention because the “white minority in South Africa is being murdered and tortured off their farms.”

Not surprisingly, the South African government is demanding a retraction of his statements, yet they do not report the numbers of farm attacks in their country, and haven’t for years. Sky News Australia reports that farmers are murdered there at a rate of more than one a week.

In Australia, leftists are demonstrating against the proposal for Australia to encourage farmer immigration, calling it “ridiculously racist.”

Despite that, Dutton maintains his position, arguing that based on the information he’s seen, “people do need help, and they need help from a civilized country like ours.”

Good for him – it’s nice to see such courage on an issue like this.

Now, let’s hear from the United States.

Follow Barbara Simpson on Facebook.

Barbara Simpson

Barbara Simpson, "The Babe in the Bunker," as she's known to her radio talk-show audience, has a 20-year radio, TV and newspaper career in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Read more of Barbara Simpson's articles here.


Leave a Comment