White and poor in South Africa

youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=pFj … =endscreen

The afrikaaners who were low level bureaucrats in S.Africa and lost their jobs are now newly poor. South Africa wants to be like America. Everyone could be poor, no regards to race anymore.

Its tough to be in that situ. To be poor , whether you are black or white.

This is part of the major economic problems in South Africa to this day. Gov services have ground to a halt in many areas. Many middle class Blacks are moving away from the ANC in droves. The ANC tends to prey on the poor, and offer free groceries for votes (this is not a joke).

These bureaucrats were the ones that did all the work and would have ensured continuity when the ANC took over. The political decision was to fire all of them as they were white, and put blacks in their places with no real experience.

This has continued to be the case as there have been no mentors in these gov positions. There was also no one left who had connections in other gov agencies, to grease the wheels when needed.

A friends father was a mid level bureaucrat in SA who lost his job. He got hired six months later as a consultant, as no one knew how to run his department properly. I will add that he was hired at almost ten times his previous salary. He is still working as a consultant, running the dept almost 20 years later, while the person hired to to his job is still there, also getting a salary. Go figure.

Yup, my parents would be living in the streets if it wasn’t for us helping them. BUt it is their own fault. They had cash and everything and didn’t think ahead. If you think you are going to be in the same situation all your life and not prepare for the worst, you are going to be poor. It was OK for most white people that most blacks had nothing during apartheid…It sucks to know that it is still such a shock for people to be white and poor that there has to be a film made about it.

It’s a really challenging film to ones own prejudices. I mean I did find myself sympathizing a lot with these people who had lost everything and yet this problem has always existed there.

Like BD said there is a middle way they could have pursued, I would have suggested some black empowerment with massive investment in education. The current way is wasting the country’s potential.
The other confusing thing is that there are some very wealthy whites still in South Africa along with the connected wealthy blacks. I have seen their lifestyle in Cape Town and they live very very well, as long as they roll the odds and stay safe everyday. Their food, climate, air, shops, restaurants, beaches, outdoor lifestyle, blows away Taiwan. They don’t work particularly long hours either. Coloreds also seem to do well there. Cape Town is one of the best places in SA from what I have heard in general.

[quote=“headhonchoII”]It’s a really challenging film to ones own prejudices. I mean I did find myself sympathizing a lot with these people who had lost everything and yet this problem has always existed there.

Like BD said there is a middle way they could have pursued, I would have suggested some black empowerment with massive investment in education. The current way is wasting the country’s potential.
The other confusing thing is that there are some very wealthy whites still in South Africa along with the connected wealthy blacks. I have seen their lifestyle in Cape Town and they live very very well, as long as they roll the odds and stay safe everyday. Their food, climate, air, shops, restaurants, beaches, outdoor lifestyle, blows away Taiwan. They don’t work particularly long hours either. Coloreds also seem to do well there. Cape Town is one of the best places in SA from what I have heard in general.[/quote]

I read a book a few years ago, dealing with the senior Generals in the old SADF. and Georg Meiring, who was the last commander of the SADF, and served under the ANC as well, has stated his disgust with the National Party during negotiations with the ANC. He states they just gave the country away.

The top NP leaders basically covered their asses and ensured their security. They did not give a F about their constituents. They could have prevented the whole mess the country is in now, by ensuring this continuity of gov service, and insisting, as HH2, states in massive investment in Black education. They were definitely in a position to do this, as they still had a strong military behind them, and were the ones negotiating from a stronger position.

This is why the National Party does not exist anymore.

There is now a few extremely wealthy Blacks and Whites. A SLOWLY emerging Black middle class, a White middle class, and the poor.

However, the MAJORITY of Black South Africans, are worse off economically then they were under the Nationalists. Before the screams of racism come out of the woodwork, note I said ECONOMICALLY. They were employed, now unemployment sits at 40 odd percent. The ANC is struggling to grow the economy due to corruption and mismanagement. Many old White politicians were just as corrupt,but they tended to leave a few cookies in the jar.

Just look at Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s statements, where he says the current ANC gov is worse than the Apartheid gov!! Coming from someone like him, that says it all.

Just look at the current Presidents situation, and what happened to Julius Malema. This is a small tip of an extremely large iceberg.

When I came to Taiwan 3 years ago, the exchange rate was NT$ 4.5 to ZAR 1.
It is now around NT$ 3.4 to ZAR 1.

Inflation is out of control over there, in large part because of the devaluation of the rand. The company I worked for has a production facility there and their electricity costs were skyrocketing, along with unreliable supply. Then you have a huge amount of union BS to deal with along with black empowerment minefields to negotiate.

Two words: baby rape.

Baby Gangrape is the norm.